THE  RISE  OF  THE 
MERICAN  PROLETARIAN 


BY 

AUSTIN  LEWIS 


ONM.  LIBRARY 
OF 


LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


THE  RISE  OF  THE 


AMERICAN  PROLETARIAN 


BY 


AUSTIN  LEWIS 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 
1907 


Copyright  1907 
By  CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 


PRESS   OP 

JOHN  F.  HIGGINS 
CHICAGO 


984  k 


PREFACE 


The  proletarian  is  a  new  factor  in  American  politi- 
cal life.  Up  to  within  a  very  recent  period  his  exis- 
tence has  been  denied  by  statesmen  and  publicists. 
In  the  eyes  of  the  ordinary  respectable  historian,  this 
phenomenon  of  the  growth  of  a  class,  in  all  respects 
similar  to  the  European  proletarian  class,  has  been 
ignored.  Even  where  the  economic  and  political  activ- 
ities of  this  class  have  provoked  a  necessary  and  un- 
avoidable interest,  the  peculiar  aspect  of  these  ac- 
tivities has  either  been  uncomprehended  or  conven- 
iently neglected.  This  ostrich  tactic  is  not  only  foolish 
but  dangerous  as  well.  To  ignore  facts  is  the  very 
worst  way  of  meeting  them.  To  ignore  the  fact  of  the 
American  proletarian  is  mere  stupidity. 

The  proletarian  class  has  been  born.  It  is  already 
beginning  to  find  itself.  It  will  soon  thoroughly  un- 
derstand the  use  of  its  organs.  The  economic  and 
political  efforts  made  by  it  will  constitute  the  greater 
part  of  the  history  of  the  future  in  this  and  in  all  civil- 
ized lands. 

The  object  of  the  following  pages  is  to  show  briefly 
the  causes  of  the  origin  of  this  proletarian  class  in  the 
United  States  and  to  describe  the  mode  in  which  it 
has  made  its  existence  manifest  up  to  the  present  time. 
This  naturally  involves  a  critical  estimate,  from  the 
proletarian  point  of  view,  of  the  environment  in  which 
it  has  developed.  It  is  perhaps  as  difficult  for  the 
modern  proletarian  to  arrive  at  an  impartial  estimate 
of  the  value  of  the  capitalist  system  as  it  was  for  a 
Whig  to  correctly  appreciate  the  feudal  nobility. 
While  antagonisms  exist,  hostile  regards  cannot  be 


165129 


PREFACE 

avoided,  and  to  exhibit  correctly  the  modern  prole- 
tarian it  is  necessary,  also,  to  make  clear  his  attitude 
to  the  force  with  which  he  finds  himself  in  antagonism. 
While  the  proletarian  suffers  the  anguish  of  the  condi- 
tions with  which  he  is  oppressed  it  would  be  very  re- 
markable if  he  could  view  his  antagonists  with  philo- 
sophic calm  and  front  the  battle  with  a  mind  clear  of 
animosity.  Desirable  as  such  an  attitude  might  be,  it 
is,  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  impossible.  Therefore, 
in  any  discussion  of  the  proletarian  position,  the  prole- 
tarian psychology  must  also  be  taken  into  account. 

The  introductory  chapters  are  intended  as  a  brief 
resume  of  industrial  history.  Their  purpose  is  to  point 
out  to  what  extent  the  American  industrialist,  prole- 
tarian as  well  as  captain  of  industry,  has  been  indebted 
to  preceding  epochs  of  human  history.  Given  the  ma- 
chine development  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
factory  system,  the  results  have  been  unavoidable.  The 
course  of  development  in  this  country  has  presented 
no  new  aspects.  It  has  been  more  rapid  and  more  in- 
tense than  in  any  other,  except  perhaps  Japan,  but  the 
broad  features  of  resemblance  to  that  of  other  coun- 
tries have  been  preserved.  No  form  of  government 
has  presented  any  effective  barrier  to  the  advances  of 
modern  capitalism.  Wherever  the  essential  prerequi- 
sites of  capitalistic  growth  have  been  found,  the  plant 
has  flourished.  The  economic  forces  which  have  pro- 
duced an  ambitious  and  energetic  proletariat  in  Rus- 
sia, as  far  as  the  modern  system  has  penetrated  that 
country,  have  also  produced  a  class  conscious  and  am- 
bitious proletariat  in  the  United  States.  Political  forms 
prove  to  be  merely  forms  in  face  of  the  ceonomic  fact. 
The  capitalist  becomes  master  under  any  political 
system  and  President  and  King  are  equally  his  ser- 
vants. Ouida  somewhere  remarks  that  a  King  is  a 


PREFACE 

fat  man  who  bows  well  and  a  President  is  a  fat  man 
who  bows  badly ;  the  essential  point  is  that  they  each 
bow  equally  to  the  dominant  capitalism.  But  where 
capitalism  is  dominant  there  the  proletarian  move- 
ment raises  its  head.  In  the  hour  of  his  triumph  and 
amid  the  salutes  to  his  victory,  the  capitalist,  had  he 
the  powers  of  perception,  might  hear  the  tolling  of  his 
passing  bell.  The  imperious  demands  which  change 
makes  upon  life  cannot  be  denied,  and  the  young  prole- 
tariat must  in  the  course  of  time  come  to  claim  its  own. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  proletariat  has  to 
grow  up.  To  the  fact  of  this  growth  the  organs  of 
public  expression  unanimously  testify.  With  the  rec- 
ognition of  this  new  development  there  is  also  mingled 
a  fear — a  fear,  moreover,  which  is  entirely  unfounded. 
To  the  timorous  and  uninitiated  bourgeois,  which 
means  to  the  popular  journalist  and  the  popular  poli- 
tician, this  growth  implies  the  destruction  of  what  he  is 
pleased  to  term  civilization.  According  to  all  his 
gloomy  vaticinations  art  and  science,  which  the  mod- 
ern bourgeois  claims  to  take  under  his  protecting 
shield,  are  doomed  to  extinction  at  the  hands  of  a  bru- 
tal and  violent  working  class.  There  need,  however, 
be  no  alarm  on  this  score.  As  Kautsky  says :  "It  is  not 
by  the  proletariat  that  modern  civilization  is  threat- 
ened. It  is  those  very  communists  who  to-day  con- 
stitute the  safe  refuge  of  arts  and  science  for  which 
they  stand  in  the  most  decisive  manner." 

\Yhen  the  course  of  the  proletarian  is  finally 
crowned  with  victory  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
the  results  of  this  step  in  human  development  will 
differ  from  those  which  have  marked  its  predecessors. 
On  the  contrary,  the  triumph  of  the  proletariat  implies 
the  triumph  of  Humanity  over  the  tyranny  of  ma- 
terial things. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


Chapter. 


I     THE  Gmavmi  or  IsaxmrmixL,  OMUJOZAXIOV     - 


THJD    FICTOM    Srsraat      .......      50 


EAKW  iMKjaiiatiAi,  Hxsraaa  or  ram  UTOBD  SI*TB«    - 

.......      •* 


V  THE  Crrn.  WAS 

VI  THE  RISE  or  THE  GBEAIES  CAFITAIJSM  -        -        •        •  110 

Vn  OLIGAZCHT  AKD  IMPEMAIJBM 141 

Tm  THB  PKMOD  or  Oanmrasoar     -••---  174 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN 
PROLETARIAN 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    GROWTH    OF    INDUSTRIAL    ORGANIZATION 

The  commodity  presses  itself  upon  our  attention  di- 
rectly we  begin  to  examine  any  problem  of  social  im- 
port, that  thing  made  by  human  labor  and  offered  upon 
the  market  for  sale,  satisfying  some  human  need,  ele- 
vated or  base,  and  by  virtue  of  its  function  as  a  thing 
desired,  challenging  other  commodities  to  exchange; 
thus  forming  the  basis  of  that  intricate  and  elaborate 
arrangement  which  we  call  commerce,  for  the  protec- 
tion of  which  armies  and  navies  are  maintained,  and  in 
whose  name  and  for  whose  perpetuation  holocausts  are 
sacrificed. 

The  fight  of  the  modern  man  equally  with  the  low- 
est savage  is  a  fight  for  the  possession  of  these  instru- 
ments of  satisfaction.  The  difference  in  kind  and  in 
number  of  commodities  is  the  difference  between  the 
modern  man  and  the  barbarian,  between  savagery  and 
civilization. 

We  may  examine  this  commodity  as  regards  its 
price — the  ratio  in  which  it  exchanges  at  a  given  time 
with  other  commodities — we  are  then  engaged  upon  a 

9 


10  THE  RISE   OP  THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

study  of  economics.  We  may  study  its  mode  of  creation, 
the  processes  through  which  it  passes  before  it  reaches 
the  market  a  finished  product.  This  would  be  a  tech- 
nical study  of  the  commodity,  an  examination  into 
what  Marx  would  call  the  making  of  the  "use  value," 
and  then,  again,  we  may  eliminate  all  distinctions  of 
kind  in  commodities  and  simply  regard  them  as  a 
whole  mass  of  articles,  presented  for  exchange  upon 
the  market,  as  products  of  human  energy,  as  the  re- 
sults of  human  industry. 

This  last  is  the  purpose  which  we  have  set  before 
us — viz.,  to  follow  the  most  marked  of  the  changes 
which  have  occurred  in  the  making  of  things  which 
man  has  required,  without  any  special  study  of  the 
processes  involved  in  the  making  of  any  particular  com- 
modity, except  in  the  cases  where  a  change  in  the 
manufacture  of  a  particular  commodity,  such  as  that 
in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  a  hundred  and  thirty  years 
ago,  has  been  preliminary  to  a  general  change  in  the 
mode  of  making  commodities  of  all  kinds,  and  has  led 
to  a  new  form  of  the  organization  of  industry. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  term  industry  implies 
tfie  division  of  labor,  else  it  were  plainly  improper  to 
speak  of  the  evolution  of  industry.  If  each  person  sup- 
plied his  own  needs  in  his  own  way,  entirely  indepen- 
dent of  the  rest  of  mankind,  there  could  be  no  evolu- 
tion of  industry  as  such.  But  from  the  earliest  times 
men  have  associated  themselves  together,  having  prob- 
ably been  compelled  to  do  so  in  self-defence,  and  as 
a  result  of  their  mutual  defence  against  external  foes, 
have  learned  to  combine  against  the  common  enemy — 
nature.  They  are  not  alone  in  this.  Various  animals 
and  insects,  which  will  be  at  once  suggested,  have  also 


THE  GROWTH   OF  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION  11 

organized  themselves  into  associations  for  the  satis- 
faction of  their  needs. 

The  study  of  the  evolution  of  industry,  then,  in  the 
first  place,  becomes  a  study  of  the  various  forms  as- 
sumed by  the  division  of  labor,  the  human  arrangement 
for  the  making  of  things  to  satisfy  human  needs. 

How,  then,  did  this  division  of  labor  originate? 
Was  it  the  result  of  that  tremendous  intelligence  with 
which  man  is  gifted,  and  upon  which  so  much  en- 
thusiasm and  self-admiration  is  bestowed?  Hardly, 
for  we  have  seen  that  certain  of  the  lower  animals  at 
all  events  have  displayed  at  least  an  equal  degree  of 
intelligence  with  the  lower  races  of  man,  as  we  have 
discovered  his  in  out  of  the  way  places  and  amid 
primitive  conditions.  The  same  degree  of  sagacity  as 
marks  the  labor  of  the  beaver,  the  same  sense  of  pru- 
dence as  distinguishes  the  bee,  is  hardly  to  be  dis- 
covered among  any  primitive  people.  It  was  not  the 
innate  sagacity  of  man  that  determined  his  career  as  a 
maker  of  commodities  as  an  organizer  of  the  labor 
force  inherent  in  him,  but  the  force  of  circumstances. 
The  necessities  of  the  case  drove  a  feeble  animal, 
without  any  very  effective  means  of  defence,  against 
the  elements  and  the  rapacity  of  the  beast  and  his  fellow 
man,  to  solve,  one  by  one,  the  problems  of  sustenance 
as  they  were  presented  to  him,  and  to  use  nature  herself, 
his  erstwhile  foe,  as  his  slave. 

Looking  back  over  the  wonders  achieved,  the  men 
of  primitive  tribes  endeavored  to  typify  the  first  tri- 
umphs of  their  race  under  the  names  of  individuals 
and  to  describe  as  one  great  achievement  of  super- 
human strength  the  startling  records  of  human  activity 
and  progress  through  countless  generations.  Tubal- 


12  THE  RISE  OF  THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

Cain  and  Prometheus  are  the  naive  explanations  of 
great  and  permanent  inventions  and  discoveries.  We 
laugh  at  their  childishness,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the 
ascription  of  superhuman  power  to  individuals  is  no 
more  absurd  in  the  naive  hero-worship  of  the  early] 
tribesmen  than  the  later  conception  of  the  same  idea 
in  the  mind  of  a  Carlyle. 

What  the  race  has  won  the  race  has  earned;  and 
by  the  race  we  mean  not  the  individuals  whose  names 
stand  out  as  conspicuous  landmarks  to  mark  an  epoch 
or  an  event,  but  the  great  common  mass  of  men  and 
women  whose  lives  and  experiences  have  been  blended 
in  what  we  call  the  experience  of  mankind  and  from  the 
great  stores  of  which  the  inventor  and  the  organizer 
must  draw  his  material  be  he  never  so  mighty. 

The  division  of  labor  is  therefore  the  history  of 
the  race  in  more  than  one  sense.  It  is  to  a  great  ex- 
tent its  record  as  seen  in  the  passing  events  and  inci- 
dents which  go  to  make  up  history,  and,  in  a  still 
greater  and  wider  sense,  it  is  the  sum  of  the  mental 
activities  generated  by  the  efforts  of  man  to  solve  the 
various  problems  which  have  been  from  time  to  time 
presented  in  his  struggle  for  existence. 

Men  come  and  go,  much  of  the  result  of  labor  is 
lost  by  the  way,  but  the  store  continually  increases  in 
the  treasure-house  of  mankind.  Peoples  must  appar- 
ently begin  at  the  beginning.  They  work  out  their 
first  problem  by  themselves  and  afterwards  they 
spread  out,  come  into  contact  with  other  peoples,  who 
have  themselves  been  solving  their  problems.  They 
melt  the  one  into  the  other  and  at  the  same  time  their 
different  industrial  efforts  amalgamate,  and  the  whole 
race  is  permanently  endowed  with  the  results  of  the 


THE  GROWTH   OF  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION  13 

separate  achievements  of  its  component  peoples.  New 
methods  succeed  the  old  ones,  and  thus  old  arts  decay 
and  the  skill  achieved  in  certain  directions  to  which 
the  roads  have  been  forgotten  is  evidenced  by  the  finds 
in  sepulchers  and  the  ruins  of  long  buried  buildings. 

It  thus  appears  at  first  glance  that  the  division-  of 
labor  is  not  the  result  of  individual  but  of  social  effort. 
It  is  not  due  to  the  transcendent  ability  of  this  or 
that  man,  but  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  stored-up  knowl- 
edge of  man,  dealing  with  new  conditions  and  amid 
a  fresh  environment.  With  this  truth  admitted  disap- 
pears one  of  the  most  cherished  ideas  of  a  once  exceed- 
ingly popular  school  of  philosophers. 

When  Defoe  put  Robinson  Crusoe  on  his  desert 
island  he  little  thought  that  the  genial  Yorkshireman 
was  to  become  the  center  of  a  conflict  with  which  any 
of  those  waged  against  his  cannibal  foes  is  very  in- 
significant. Robinson  Crusoe  was  a  great  find  for  the 
old  individualistic  political  economist.  It  saved  him 
inventing  anybody.  This  economic  man  was  made 
ready  to  his  hand,  and  Robinson  with  his  bags  of 
potatoes  has  served  as  an  object  lesson  for  all  sorts  of 
learned  dissertations,  from  the  greatest  happiness 
theory  down  to  the  most  modern  abstractions  in  the 
shape  of  marginal  utility. 

But  if  Robinson  was  a  favorite  instance  with 
the  individualistic  economist  and  philosopher,  there 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  use  him  also,  and  he 
will  be  found  at  least  a  valuable  example  for  us,  and 
not  as  embarrassing  as  Professor  Bohm-Bawerk  ap- 
pears to  have  found  him  to  be.  It  is  really  worth  con- 
sidering whether  Robinson  in  the  flesh  had  ever  half 
as  heavy  a  load  to  carry,  as  he  climbed  the  winding 


14  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

road  to  his  cabin,  as  the  learned  Austrian  has  laid  upon 
his  back,  and  if  he  was  nearly  as  surprised  at  the 
footprint  of  the  savage  as  he  would  be  at  the  marvelous 
legerdemain  shown  in  the  handling  of  his  modest  bags 
of  provisions. 

.True,  Robinson  was  a  mighty  individual.  He 
routed  the  savage  tribes  with  a  spirit  and  a  measure 
of  success  which  is  very  pretty  to  read  about  and  he 
provided  for  his  own  comfort  in  an  exceedingly  satis- 
factory manner.  His  Yorkshire  appetite  and  his  York- 
shire anxiety  about  his  food  supply  never  desert  him 
and  he  solves  all  the  little  problems  incident  upon  his 
strange  conditions  with  a  dexterity  which  has  been  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  school  boys  and  still  con- 
tinues to  be  so. 

But  if  Robinson  had  been  the  great  individual,  the 
supreme  and  all-conquering  one,  Nietszche's  "over 
man"  incarnate,  he  should  have  started  from  the  begin- 
ning. Defoe  should  have  put  him  on  the  island  a 
naked  man,  unequipped  to  begin  his  struggle  with  the 
elements.  How  long  it  would  have  been  then  before 
Robinson  would  have  found  himself  in  the  cannibal 
economic  system? 

Instead  of  that,  one  simple  tool  after  another  comes 
into  his  hands.  An  axe — what  generations,  nay  ages 
of  human  toil  and  experience  lay  behind  that  axe  which 
Robinson  so  easily  finds  and  so  skilfully  uses?  How 
immeasurably  had  the  people  to  whom  an  axe  was  a 
familiar  implement  progressed  beyond  the  savages 
whom  Robinson  met  and  to  whom  it  was  a  strange 
and  wonderful  thing!  And  so  with  all  the  tools  until 
the  crowning  one  is  reached,  the  gun,  which  made  him 
master  of  the  bird,  the  beast  and  his  undeveloped 


THE  GROWTH   OF   INDUSTRIAL   ORGANIZATION  15 

fellow-man.  Even  had  Robinson  been  placed  on  the 
island  under  the  elementary  conditions  of  which  we 
have  spoken  he  would  still  by  virtue  of  the  racial  ex- 
perience behind  him  and  the  greater  brain  development 
consequent  upon  his  inheritance  of  racial  experiences, 
have  been  immeasurably  superior  in  resource  to  the  sav- 
ages against  whom  he  had  to  contend. 

All  that  Robinson  had  he  owed  to  human  society, 
to  the  aggregated  experience  of  countless  men  and 
women,  who  had  been  associated  for  generations  on 
generations  before  his  time.  In  fact,  this  typical  indi- 
vidual turns  out  not  to  have  been  an  individual  at  all, 
so  far  as  the  solution  of  his  problems  on  the  island  is 
concerned,  but  a  broken-off  section  of  a  society  which 
had  formerly  claimed  him  as  a  fraction,  and  composed 
of  the  same  materials  as  the  society  from  which  he 
had  been  separated  by  shipwreck. 

We  have  dealt  with  Robinson  at  some  little  length 
because  through  him  we  can  reach  a  whole  host  of  be- 
lated individualistic  objections  to  the  later  philosophy 
of  society  and  industry.  Thus  the  utilitarian  accounts 
for  the  growth  of  the  organization  of  industry,  the 
creation  of  the  division  of  labor,  upon  the  assumption 
that  it  was  made  in  the  pursuit  of  human  happiness. 
This  is  an  old  idea.  The  argument  runs  something  in 
this  way :  Every  man  desires  to  be  happy,  the  sanction 
of  every  man's  acts  is  his  individual  happiness;  there- 
fore the  evolution  of  industry  has  come  about  as  the 
result  of  individual  experimentation  in  the  direction 
of  individual  happiness. 

Unfortunately  for  this  argument  it  remains  to  be 
proved  whether  there  has  been  any  increase  in  what 
may  be  termed  human  happiness,  owing  to  the  institu- 


16  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

tion  of  the  division  of  labor.  Happiness  is  a  sufficient- 
ly indefinite  term  in  any  sense,  but  it  would  puzzle  even 
an  individualistic  philosopher  to  show  that  the  terrible 
suffering  and  destitution  which  have  been  the  lot  of 
great  masses  of  men  at  every  period  of  industrial  tran- 
sition, have  been  willingly  undertaken  by  them  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  at  most  a  doubtful  happiness  to 
other  people.  Imagine  the  happiness  which  is  at  the  pres- 
ent time  expressed  in  a  slum-huddled  and  gin-befuddled 
submerged  population,  called  into  existence,  and  doomed 
to  extinction  under  circumstances  of  the  greatest  pos- 
sible misery  by  the  industrial  organization  invented 
by  individuals,  each  one  of  them  bent  upon  securing  the 
greatest  possible  amount  of  happiness ! 

It  would  be  hard  in  the  history  of  human  thought  to 
find  a  theory  so  absurd  in  irs  aefrtal  results  as  the  utili- 
tarian. It  was  a  ready-made  affair,  intended  uncon- 
sciously to  serve  the  purposes  of  the  new  capitalists 
and  the  Manchester  economists.  It  has  gone  with  much 
other  lumber  of  the  same  kind.  But  it  has  to  be 
mentioned  because  venerable  old  gentlemen  who  were 
at  college  when  John  Stuart  Mill  was  a  power,  still  put 
up  their  hands  and  deliver  themselves  of  portentous 
platitudes  based  upon  such  utilitarian  ideas.  There 
are  few  things  as  persistent  as  a  preconceived  notion, 
and  the  ghosts  of  utilitarianism  come  back  with  quite 
depressing  frequency  to  haunt  the  age  of  trusts  and  the 
dynamo. 

What  then  are  we  to  say?  That  men  began  the  di- 
vision of  labor  because  they  could  not  help  it  ?  Even  this 
would  be  much  nearer  the  mark.  Men  invented  the  di- 
vision of  labor  because  they  had  to  do  so  or  succumb.  They 
must  go  forwards  or  backwards.  There  was  offered  for 


THE  GROWTH   OF  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION  17 

their  choice  in  the  prehistoric  times,  merely  extinction  or 
a  new  way  of  grappling  with  the  environment.  How 
many  races  perished  because  they  did  not  discover  a  way 
of  meeting  the  exigencies  of  the  circumstances  we  know 
not,  but  one  race  at  least  worked  it  out  and  survived,  and 
by  continual  modifications  of  its  methods  at  long  intervals 
still  continued  to  survive. 

This  much  we  know,  at  all  events,  that  the  progress  of 
a  people  in  the  sciences,  arts,  and  all  other  things  of  that 
nature,  is  dependent  upon  the  degree  of  efficiency  which 
has  been  attained  on  the  field  of  industry.  We  know 
also  that  these  fine  things  are  the  effects  and  not  the 
causes  of  industrial  progress,  which  depends,  in  its  last 
resort,  upon  a  much  more  prosaic  fact,  the  necessity  of 
each  man,  woman  and  child  eating  at  least  one  meal  a  day. 

The  object  then,  of  the  division  of  labor  is  the  sup- 
port of  the  group  in  which  it  is  employed,  not  the  support 
of  the  individual  of  the  group,  except  incidentally,  but  the 
support  of  the  group  itself  as  a  unit.  As  Professor  Gid- 
dings  says  in  a  burst  of  candor  and  straightforwardness, 
as  refreshing  as  it  is  rare  among  professors :  "Industry  is 
the  solution  of  the  problem  of  subsistence." 

The  division  of  labor  then  consists  in  the  employment 
of  different  kinds  of  human  activities  to  one  definite  end, 
and  that  is  the  subsistence  of  the  group.  It  can  only, 
therefore,  be  effected  among  the  members  of  an  already 
constituted  society. 

The  industry  of  wandering  tribes  is  of  necessity  a 
simple  thing.  Even  here  we  find  some  differentiation 
of  activities,  but,  generally  speaking,  each  member 
is  able  to  perform  any  duty  which  may  devolve 
upon  him  at  any  particular  time  with  regard  to  tribal 
life.  Thus,  as  Spencer  points  out,  the  industry  of  nomadic 


f   UNIVERSITY  I 


18  THE   RISE    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

tribes  in  itself  implies  an  absence  of  concentration  and  a 
a  dispersal  over  as  wide  an  area  as  possible.  All  of  which 
is  naturally  against  the  development  of  any  complex  sys- 
tem of  organization. 

Agricultural  settlement,  on  the  other  hand,  is  much 
more  conducive  to  a  more  complex  form  of  industrial 
organization,  but  still  does  not  give  scope  for  this  in  any 
degree  at  all  comparable  with  later  forms  of  the  social 
structure.  The  various  activities  of  agricultural  life  de- 
mand some  sort  of  organization  and  arrangement,  and  in 
the  patriarchal  system  there  is  a  very  complete  and  practi- 
cal delegation  of  duties. 

A  later  French  sociologist,  Durkheim,  has  defined 
earlier  forms  of  social  life  as  consisting  of  repetitions  of 
the  same  segments.  This  is  rather  an  effective  compari- 
son. Thus  in  agricultural  societies,  the  society  is  made 
up  of  farm  after  farm,  each  of  them  presenting  the  same 
features,  one  being,  as  regards  its  economic  structure,  a 
repetition  of  the  other. 

The  division  of  labor  arises  from  and  results  in  the 
breaking  up  of  these  segments.  As  its  result  we  get 
the  organized  society  of  to-day,  which  is  just  the  reverse 
of  segmental.  In  the  segmental  form  of  organization,  any 
segment  may  be  injured  or  destroyed  without  any  partic- 
ular effect  being  experienced  by  those  remaining.  It  is 
quite  otherwise  with  the  societies  of  to-day,  at  least  with 
those  which  combined  constitute  the  great  modern  system. 
The  least  upset  or  disturbance  in  the  industry  of  the  one 
is  the  cause  of  suffering  and  misery  in  another.  A  drought 
in  Dakota  may  set  the  children  of  a  London  carpenter 
crying  for  food,  a  financial  disturbance  in  Vienna  sends 
the  daughters  of  a  San  Francisco  banker  out  into  the 
world  to  earn  a  living. 


THE  GROWTH   OF   INDUSTRIAL   ORGANIZATION  19 

Spencer  gives  a  definition  of  social  evolution,  which 
appears  to  fill  all  the  requirements  of  such  a  definition. 
He  says  that  in  the  course  of  such  evolution,  small  and 
simple  types  first  arise  and  disappear  after  short  exis- 
tences, that  these  small  and  simple  types  are  succeeded 
by  higher,  more  complex  and  longer  lived  types ;  and  these 
I  again  by  others  which  give  promise  of  greater  longevity 
and  a  higher  type  of  existence. 

The  evolution  of  industry  fulfills  all  these  conditions ; 
it  has  kept  step  in  its  complexity  with  the  growing  com- 
plexity of  society ;  nay,  it  has  been  the  cause  and  the  rea- 
son of  the  complexity  in  society.  In  its  gro\vth  to  a 
more  and  more  involved  machine  it  has  dragged  along 
with  it  society  willy-nilly,  but  always  in  pursuit  of  the 
same  object,  the  satisfaction  of  human  needs,  for,  under- 
neath all  the  superimposed  grandeur  and  magnificence  of 
modern  civilization,  the  same  problem,  the  problem  of 
subsistence,  lies  at  the  base. 

Industrial  evolution  has  been  divided  in  to  four  stages 
called,  respectively,  the  Family,.  System,  the  Gild  System, 
the__Domestic  System  and  the  Factory  System. 

These  are  useful  divisions,  but  they  are  by  no  means 
absolute.  They  cannot  be  regarded  as  hard  and  fast  di- 
visions, for,  in  some  conditions  of  society,  we  may  get 
several  of  them  working  together.  Thus,  even  in  the  form 
of  industry  at  the  present  day,  the  dominant  expression 
of  which  is  the  factory  system,  we  get  a  great  and  strong 
survival  of  what  was  called  the  domestic  system,  and  still 
some  other  survivals  of  an  old  gild  system.  But  each  of 
them  has,  at  any  rate,  represented  the  dominant  form 
of  industry  at  some  time  in  the  evolution  of  a  society  up 
to  the  present  form.  They  appear  to  be  the  recognized 
steps,  by  which  the  division  of  labor  progresses,  and  so- 


£0  THE   RISE  OF   THE  AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

cial  activity,  on  its  industrial  side,  may  be  included  in  one 
or  other  of  them. 

In  the  family  system  the  work  was  carried  on  by  the 
household  for  the  good  of  the  housesold.  The  household 
may  be  large  or  small,  as  small  as  a  Boer  farm,  where 
this  system  was  the  only  one  commonly  employed,  or  large 
enough  to  include  a  feudal  manor.  In  either  case  the  es- 
sential marks  are  practically  identical. 

The  distinguishing  marks  of  this  system  are  that  sale 
is  not  by  any  means  a  dominant  factor;  where  it  occurs 
it  is,  for  the  most  part,  accidental  and  occasional.  Pro- 
duction is  mostly  for  use.  These  are  the  main  charac- 
teristics of  the  family  system,  in  whatever  form  it  shows 
itself.  Among  the  forms  assumed  by  the  family  system 
at  different  periods  we  get : 

(a)  Communal  or  Tribal  Production. — This  is  found 
among  nomads,  savages,  barbarians  and  village  Indians. 
The  Pueblo  Indians  furnish  a  good  example  of  this  stage 
in  the  organization  of  industry.  These  Pueblo  Indians 
tilled  their  fields  in  common,  they  divided  their  food  from 
a  common  store  and  they  cultivated  gardens,  etc.,  in  com- 
mon?  beside  making  a  common  provision  against  the  pos- 
sible encroachments  of  hard  times.  Perhaps  even  a  better 
example  still  is  furnished  by  the  Polynesian  Islanders. 
The  great  war  canoe  of  the  Fiji  Islanders  is  a  striking 
instance  of  the  working  of  the  system  in  what  was  to 
them  an  exceedingly  great  enterprise,  the  building  of  a 
ship  as  the  common  property  of  the  tribe.  There  is  not  a 
nail  in  all  the  canoe.  It  is  held  together  by  cocoanut 
fiber,  the  deck  is  adzed  with  a  flint  adze,  there  is  a  house 
in  the  middle  of  the  canoe,  which  is  capable  of  holding 
about  two  hundred  people.  This  canoe  took  about  two 
years  to  make.  During  its  construction  a  portion  of  the 


THE  GROWTH  OF  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION  21 

tribe  labored  upon  it  while  another  portion  provided  food 
and  clothes  for  those  engaged  in  the  building.  At  the 
end  of  the  work,  the  canoe  became  the  property  of  the 
tribe.  Here  is  an  elementary  form  of  the  division  of 
labor  sufficient  to  answer  all  the  needs  of  the  society  in 
which  it  existed  and  which  it  sustained.  ( See  Hyndman's 
"Economics  of  Socialism.") 

(b)  Slavery. — Not  until  the  institution  of  slavery  did 
the  division  of  labor  make  any  great  headway.  Slavery 
was  the  source  and  origin  of  many  of  the  separate  and 
independent  trades  as  they  exist  to-day.  The  differentia- 
tion of  labor  was  a  result  of  a  desire  to  get  as  much  labor 
as  possible  out  of  the  slaves  whose  surplus  products  went 
in  the  aggrandizement  and  luxury  of  the  master.  Under 
slavery  arose  the  distinction  between  agriculture  and 
handicraft.  Some  sort  of  trade,  not  ostensibly  as  trade 
but  rather  as  exchange,  arising  from  a  superfluity  of  cer- 
tain commodities,  arose,  and  this  naturally  tended  to  in- 
crease. But  there  was  no  production  for  the  sake  of 
sale  alone;  the  values  created  were  for  the  most  part 
use  values.  Labor  over  and  above  what  was  required 
for  the  purpose  of  maintenance  was  usually  expended  in 
the  making  of  luxuries,  whence  arose  the  magnificence 
which  Oriental  despots  and  the  Roman  nobility  enjoyed. 
The  great  Oriental  empires  rested  on  a  foundation  of 
chattel  slavery.  It  appears  in  a  very  crude  form  among 
the  Greeks  of  Homeric  times,  although  here  we  find 
a  certain  intimacy  and  even  friendliness  between  master 
and  slave,  for  which  our  later  conceptions  of  the  system 
of  slavery  do  not  altogether  prepare  us.  In  spite  of  the 
terrible  personal  powers  of  the  master  in  the  disposal  of 
the  slave,  it  is  at  least  doubtful  whether  the  burden 


22  THE    RISE    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

weighed  as  heavily  upon  him  as  that  of  the  modern  system 
upon  our  free  proletarians. 

The  system  appears  in  a  more  advanced  form  in  Spar- 
ta, where  we  have  an  example  of  communist  property  in 
slaves,  and  again  in  Athens,  where  a  comparatively  small 
free  population  subsisted  for  the  most  part  upon  slave 
labor,  and  under  the  exceptionally  good  climatic  condi- 
tions of  the  Hellenic  peninsula  found  an  opportunity  for 
the  cultivation  of  the  fine  arts  and  the  development  of  the 
aesthetic  instinct  to  an  extent  which  has  never  yet  been 
equaled. 

But  Rome  furnishes  the  best  and  most  extensive  ex- 
ample of  slavery  as  an  institution  brought  to  perfection. 
The  great  wars  of  the  later  republic  were  undertaken 
largely  to  replenish  the  numbers  of  slaves  held  by  the 
prominent  Romans,  under  whose  superintendence  the  di- 
vision of  labor  was  greatly  extended.  Slaves  were  largely 
employed  for  all  kinds  of  work,  the  coarsest  and  the  most 
refined.  The  slave  market  at  Rome  offered  for  sale  men 
who  were  capable  of  serving  in  the  most  intimate  capaci- 
ties, as  scribes  or  private  secretaries,  and  in  the  most 
menial,  as  tenders  of  cattle  or  tillers  of  the  soil.  No  occu- 
pation was  too  high  or  too  low  for  the  slaves;  they 
filled  the  harems  of  the  nobility  and  they  ministered  to 
culture  and  the  arts.  Upon  their  shoulders  rested  the 
cultivation  of  the  latifundia,  or  large  farms,  which  were 
the  source  of  wealth  of  the  nQbility;  they  were  employed 
not  only  in  Italy,  but  also  in  the  provinces,  and  large 
numbers  of  them  toiled  for  the  production  of  that  corn 
supply  upon  which  crowded  Rome,  with  its  bands  of  pro- 
fessional politicians,  had  to  rely  for  very  life. 

Naturally,  under  such  circumstances,  the  slave,  with 
his  command  of  a  trade  of  some  sort  or  other,  gradually 


THE  GROWTH  OF  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION  23 

became  a  person  of  greater  and  greater  importance,  his 
enormous  numbers  threatened  the  stability  of  the  State, 
concession  after  concession  was  made  to  him.  Some  of  his 
labor  time  he  obtained  for  himself  and  with  the  money  he 
was  able  to  earn  in  this  time  he  was  permitted  to  purchase 
his  freedom.  This  "peculium,"  as  it  was  called,  was 
analogous  to  the  small  sums  which  sometimes  the  modern 
proletarian  can  save  out  of  his  wages,  and  which,  when 
deposited  in  the  banks,  form  the  subject  of  much  con- 
gratulatory satisfaction  from  the  economists  and  statisti- 
cians of  the  class  in  power.  This  fact,  coupled  with  the  in- 
crease in  liberality  of  legislation  mentioned  above,  paved 
the  way  for  the  creation  of  a  new  kind  of  man — the  free 
laborer. 

(c)  Succeeding  slavery  we  get  still  another  form  of 
the  employment  of  labor,  which  contained  within  itself 
the  possibilities  of  a  still  greater  extension  of  the  division 
of  labor.  This  was  serfdom.  Here,  the  personal  owner- 
ship of  the  slave  by  the  master  disappears.  It  was  a 
modified  form  of  slavery,  but  was  marked  by  a  break- 
ing down  of  the  single  farm  segment.  The  serf  formed 
the  basis  of  a  wider  social  organization,  a  feudal  system 
which  included  and  united  within  itself  various  smaller 
estates  and  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  modern  State.  The 
serf  performed  certain  duties  which  did  not  monopolize 
his  time  and  which  left  him  considerable  leisure  for  the 
following  of  his  own  pursuits.  It  is  clear  that  this  fact 
would  in  itself  make  for  a  still  further  development  of 
the  division  of  labor  than  was  possible  under  slavery. 
Round  the  castle  of  the  feudal  lord  clustered  the  huts  of 
the  serfs,  who  each  followed  specific  pursuits;  the  ar- 
morer, the  blacksmith,  the  worker  in  wood  and  others 
who  followed  their  avocations,  and  step  by  step  developed 


24  THE   RISE   OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

the  individual  trade  distinctions  which  mark  the  di- 
vision ofJaj2DX-a& it-appears  at  the  present  time. 

It  must  be  remembered,  'however,  that  the  majority 
of  these  trades  were  followed,  though  in  an  ever  lessening 
degree,  as  merely  by-employments.  The  workman  of  the 
early  feudal  times  was  a  much  less  specialized  individual 
than  is  the  workman  of  to-day,  who  is  gradually  being 
reduced  to  an  almost  my^ic  condition  by  the  sameness 
and  dreariness  of  his  daily  task.  But,  as  the  development 
of  personal  skill  led,  on  economic  grounds  as  well  as 
those  of  personal  enjoyment,  to  a  selection  of  a  particular 
kind  of  work,  the  standard  of  work  improved,  and  the 
way  was  gradually  prepared  for  the  development  of  a  new 
and  still  more  important  system,  namely,  the  gild  system. 

With  the  end  of  serfdom  we  find  ourselves  outside 
the  narrow  limits  of  the  family  system.  This  having  be- 
gun in  the  prehistoric  stages  of  family  life,  lasted  up  to 
a  time  which  brings  us  within  a  comparatively  short 
distance  of  our  own.  Savagery  and  barbarism  had  found 
its  applications  sufficient  for  their  needs.  From  step 
to  step  it  developed,  widening  the  scope  of  the  division 
of  labor  at  every  grade,  and,  like  all  systems,  preparing 
itself  for  its  own  final  disappearance. 

In  the  light  of  our  own  later  knowledge  it  appears 
almost  incredible  that  men,  wise  men,  too,  should  have 
taken  the  absolute  and  static  view  of  human  society  which 
has  been  the  rule  up  to  a  comparatively  recent  date. 
The  examination  of  the  family  system,  with  its  different 
forms  of  organization,  shows  how  necessary  each  step 
was,  how  essential  was  the  link  that  each  stage  furnished 
in  the  development  of  industry.  Any  pause  in  the  devel- 
opment would  have  necessarily  meant  the  arrest  of  human 
development ;  any  diminution  of  the  suffering  even  would 


THE  GROWTH   OF  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION  25 

have  probably  resulted  in  the  staying  of  the  wheels  of 
progress. 

It  is  well  to  bear  this  in  mind  when  we  are  consider- 
ing the  horrible  conditions  which  were  an  essential  part 
of  the  system  of  chattel  slavery.  Repugnant  as  the  whole 
idea  of  chattel  slavery  is  to  our  minds,  and  incredible  as 
would  be  its  existence  at  the  present  time,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  to  that  institution  we  owe  much  of  the 
impetus  in  the  direction  of  the  division  of  labor  of  which 
we  some  day  hope  to  reap  the  benefit  for  ourselves. 
i  It  is  not  by  the  good  in  a  system  but  by  the  evil  in  it 
that  progress  is  made.  Anything  which  tends  to  obscure 
the  antithesis  existing  in  a.  social  organization,  to  hide 
the  contradiction,  is  an  obstacle  in  the  path  of  progress. 
Boards  of  arbitration  and  such  like  efforts  to  reconcile 
irreconcilable  interests  are  really  only  nuisances.  The 
antithesis  is  there,  all  soft  words  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing, it  must  work  itself  out  and  upon  this  working 
out  depends  the  progress  and  further  development  of  the 
particular  society.  We  shall  now  see  how  the  antithesis 
existing  in  the  feudal  system  declared  itself,  and  how  it 
finally  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  that  social  system, 
for,  as  Engels  says,  in  a  sort  of  paraphrase  of  the  Hegelian 
dictum  concerning  the  rationality  of  all  existing  things, 
the  chief  value  of  all  phenomena  is  the  certainty  of  their 
disappearance. 

The  next  form  assumed  by  the  division  of  labor,  the 
gild,  was  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  feudalism. 

The  gild  system  began  about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century.  The  reason  of  its  coming  into  being  was  chiefly 
the  development  of  particular  trades  under  the  system 
of  serfdom  and  the  consequent  increase  in  steady  demand 
for  certain  commodities,  which  encouraged  a  more  regular 


86  THE  RISE  OF  THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

attention  being  paid  to  their  manufacture.  This  was  ac- 
companied by  an  increase  in  the  food  supply  due  to  an  im- 
provement in  the  system  of  farming,  longer  periods  of 
peace  and  the  settlement  and  reclamation  of  larger  tracts 
of  land.  These  causes  encouraged  specialization  and  did 
away  with  the  mere  by-employment  in  manufacture  of 
time  snatched  from  farming.  Hence,  the  crafts  arose, 
and  the  gilds  were  organized  for  the  purpose  of  regulat- 
ing the  work  done  in  the  craft.  The  chief  feature  of  gild 
work  was  excellence  of  quality,  and  to  ensure  this,  a  sys- 
tem of  graded  apprenticeship  was  devised.  The  result 
was  a  growth  in  personal  relations  as  opposed  to  the  re- 
lations of  the  feudal  system  which  were  based  on  the 
holding  of  land.  But  the  gild  itself  contained  the  con- 
tradiction that  was  to  destroy  it.  The  gild  master  ac- 
quired more  and  more  power,  and  the  gild  system  con- 
tinually grew  in  the  direction  of  monopoly;  in  some 
cases  certain  families  monopolized  an  entire  craft  in  a  cer- 
tain district.  None  but  members  of  the  gild  were  allowed 
to  practice  a  craft  in  a  particular  place,  and  hence  grew 
the  element  which  was  destined  later  to  destroy  the  gild. 
Coincident  with  the  gild  grew  up  the  merchant  adventur- 
ers, and  as  trade  developed,  the  merchant  gilds  arose, 
which  after  a  time,  became  stronger  than  the  craft  gilds, 
and  established  commerce  as  commerce. 

The  distinguishing  feature  of  the  gild  system  was  the 
combination  of  labor  with  a  small  capital.  The  gild 
master  had  a  little  money;  he  bought  the  material  and, 
with  his  apprentices,  made  the  finished  product.  This 
he  sold  directly  to  the  customer.  The  personal  relation 
was  very  marked.  The  gild  master  worked  as  a  rule  in 
the  shop  with  his  men ;  there  was  no  class  difference  be- 
tween them,  at  least,  at  first ;  but  later  as  the  gild  masters 


THE  GROWTH   OF  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION  27 

increased  their  wealth  and  became  tyrannical,  the  appren- 
tices and  journeymen  were  often  in  sharp  conflict  with  the 
former. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  gild  system  greatly  in- 
creased the  effectiveness  of  the  division  of  labor,  estab- 
lished the  crafts  upon  a  firm  basis  and  introduced  a  degree 
of  technical  skill  which  had  hitherto  never  been  attained, 
at  least,  on  such  a  scale  and  in  such  variety.  It  caused  a 
growth  in  wealth  and  laid  the  foundations  of  a  class 
which,  by  virtue  of  its  control  of  commodities,  was  a 
dangerous  rival  to  that  class  whose  power  was  based  on 
land. 

The  domestic  system  succeeded  the  gild  system,  which 
began  to  give  way  about  the  sixteenth  century  in  England. 
The  master  no  longer  manufactured  directly  for  the 
customer ;  he  sold  the  product  to  a  middleman.  Frequently, 
also,  he  bought  the  raw  material  from  a  middleman.  This, 
of  course,  tended  to  increase  the  number  of  middlemen 
very  greatly,  and  they  became  a  mere  money  power, 
taking  the  risks  of  the  market  and  speculating  in  the 
values  of  commodities.  They  were  only  traders,  having 
nothing  to  do  with  the  manufacture  of  the  commodities, 
but  sucking  sustenance  from  the  makers.  One  effect 
of  this  system  was  the  break-up  of  the  narrow  local  or- 
ganizations of  the  feudal  system.  The  cry  of  nationality 
arose  with  the  extension  of  the  market,  and  the  confined 
and  restricted  limitations  upon  buying  and  selling  were 
gradually  abolished. 

There  is  no  necessity  to  go  into  the  manifold  disad- 
vantages of  the  domestic  system.  But  under  it  the  stand- 
ard of  the  work  done  by  the  crafts  lamentably  deteriorated. 
The  conditions  under  which  labor  was  carried  on  were  fre- 
quently of  the  very  worst,  the  comparative  isolation  was 


28  THE   RISE   OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

a  great  destroyer  of  the  social  spirit  which  the  modified 
communism  of  the  feudal  system  had  preserved  from  the 
earlier  tribal  communism,  and  the  outward  expression  of 
social  life,  in  the  shape  of  architectural  and  artistic  monu- 
ments, was  practically  destroyed.  It  was  a  crude  and 
unlovely  period  and  is  absolutely  undeserving  of  the 
praises  which  are  bestowed  upon  it  by  the  narrow  reac- 
tionists who  attack  the  present  system  by  speaking  en- 
thusiastically of  the  "much  better  life"  of  our  fathers. 

The  fact  of  economic  moment  in  the  domestic  system 
was  the  frank  substitution  of  manufacture  for  exchange 
instead  of  manufacture  in  part  for  use.  The  commodities 
were  made  expressly  for  the  market  and  several 
proverbs  are  still  alive  which  appear  to  show  a  certain 
understanding  of  this  fact;  for  example,  the  homely  say- 
ing that  the  children  of  the  shoemaker  are  always  without 
shoes. 

There  was  a  sense  of  personal  freedom,  however, 
which  the  feudal  system  lacked,  for  the  workmen  were 
free  as  to  their  daily  toil.  The  innumerable  restrictions 
of  the  gilds  were  abolished  and  labor  became  a  com- 
modity, competing  like  all  other  commodities  upon  the 
open  market.  The  master  was  no  longer  a  shopkeeper 
or  a  merchant.  He  had  lost  what  may  be  called  his 
economic  independence.  He  depended  upon  the  mid  die- 
man  and  the  market,  a  market  which  was,  by  its  expan- 
sion, slipping  further  and  further  away  from  him 

The  next  step  was  a  comparatively  easy  one;  it  was 
merely  to  transform  these  unorganized  individual  pro- 
ducers into  an  organized  effective  indti^trial^fprce.  This 
was  accomplished  by  the  discovery  of  a  new  motive  power, 
in  the  shape  of  §team.  Henceforward,  the  factory  was 
possible,  and  a  struggle  was  thereupon  entered  into  be- 


THE  GROWTH  OF  INDUSTRIAL  ORGANIZATION  29 

tween  the  old  domestic  system  and  the  new  factory  sys- 
tem. This  struggle  has  been  carried  on  for  more  than  a 
century,  each  year  marking  a  definite  increase  in  the 
power  and  strength  of  the  new  system.  With  the  passing 
of  the  domestic  system  we  come,  practically,  to  modern 
imes. 

The  factory  system  consists  in  the  thorough  carrying 
out  of  the  division  of  labor.  It  wipes  outThe  last  ves- 
tiges  of  manufacture  as  a  by-employment;  it  continually 
narrows  the  scope  of  human  activities  and  by  concentrat- 
ing the  whole  attention  upon  some  detail  of  manufacture 
creates  a  class  of  mechanical  specialists,  whose  united 
skill  is  devoted  to  the  production  of  the  finished  com- 
modity, no  part  of  which  any  individual  worker  can 
claim  as  his  own  handiwork.  It  destroys  individual  ex 
pression,  and  with  it,  all  incentive  for  artistic  creation. 
But  it  is  undoubtedly,  the  most  effective  means  ever  de- 
vised for  the  making  of  commodities.  Its  particular  ex- 
cellencies and  drawbacks  will  be  considered  under  an- 
other head. 

We  have  thus  cursorily  examined  the  course  of  the 
division  of  labor,  which,  arising  in  prehistoric  times,  has 
been  the  foundation  of  all  progress  and  which  in  the 
factory  system  appears  to  have  reached  its  culmination. 
But  the  modern  system,  also  like  all  others,  carries  within 
itself  the  hidden  contradiction;  from  it  must  grow  the 
new  force  which  is  destined,  finally,  to  overthrow  it. 


CHAPTER   II 

INSTRUMENTS   OF   PRODUCTION 

Concurrently  with  the  development  of  the  divis- 
ion of  labor,  and  the  growth  in  complexity  of  the 
human  arrangement  for  the  making  of  commodities, 
there  has  been  an  evolutionary  growth  on  the  part 
of  the  instruments  of  industry  analogous  to  and  con- 
comitant with  the  growth  of  the  industrial  organiza- 
tion. Thus  the  tool,  the  intermediary  between  man 
and  the  -raw  material  of  nature,  has  developed  from 
the  simplest  and  most  elementary  forms  to  the  most 
intricate  and  complex.  The  highly  intricate  and  in- 
volved machinery  of  to-day  exactly  corresponds  with 
the  intricate  and  involved  society  of  which  it  is  the 
servant.  Nay  perhaps  it  cannot,  with  exactness,  be 
said  that  it  is  altogether  the  servant,  for  it  compels 
organization  along  the  line  which  is  best  adapted  to 
its  own  use.  In  more  than  one  sense  it  is  indeed  the 
master,  a  cruel  master,  which  devours  men,  women 
and  little  children  indiscriminately,  with  a  preferen- 
tial fondness  for  ^the  little  children,  a  master  which 
relentlessly  "grinds  life  down  from  its  mark,"  and 
yet  a  slave,  which  in  the  end  finds  the  same  last 
resting  place  as  the  human  slave  which  tends  it,  the 
scrap-heap. 

The    discovery    of    the    tool    placed    man    at    one 
bound  above  the  lower  animals,  and  put  him  on  the 

30 


INSTRUMENTS   OF   PRODUCTION  31 

high  road  to  all  his  future  greatness  and  unlimited 
prospects.  We,  who  are  face  to  face  with  the  tre- 
mendous engines  of  production,  and  who  have  grown 
so  blase  with  the  wonders  of  the  last  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  to  whom  the  surprises  of  mechanical  in- 
vention have  become  the  merest  commonplaces  and 
who  are  apt  to  sneer  at  the  latest  achievement  and 
smile  "cui  bono"?  at  the  newest  and  largest  promise, 
have  lost  all  conception  and  appreciation  of  what 
even  the  most  elementary  tool  signified  to  the  peo- 
ple of  a  more  primitive  and  less  arrogant  time. 

But  our  traders,  wise  men,  have  learned  practi- 
cally what  we  have  for  the  most  part  failed  to  grasp 
intellectually  and  a  flourishing  barter  has  been  car- 
ried on  for  more  than  three  hundred  years  in  the  ex- 
change of  elementary  tools  with  savages  and  bar- 
barians for  valuable  land  concessions,  mineral  claims, 
tons  of  ivory,  loads  of  spices,  and  all  that  ministers  to 
the  luxury  and  pride  of  life  of  the  pampered  favorites 
of  the  tool  and  the  machine. 

Peary,  from  the  far  Arctic,  declares  that  the  impor- 
tance attached  to  elementary  tools  by  the  Eskimo 
is  very  great,  and  until  the  circumstances  of  his  life 
are  thoroughly  comprehended,  inconceivable.  Thus 
he  says,  "A  man  offered  me  his  wife  and  two  children 
for  a  skinning  knife  .  .  .  and  a  woman,  everything 
she  had  for  a  needle." 

Accustomed  to  regard  merely  the  exchange-value 
of  these  instruments  of  production  we  forget  the  use- 
value  attached  to  them  by  those  who  do  not  possess 
them.  Incidentally,  Lieut.  Peary's  story  furnishes  a 
beautiful  example  for  the  marginal  utility  professors, 


32  THE    RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

of  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  will  take  an  immediate 
advantage. 

The  origin  of  the  tool  lies  far  back  in  prehistoric 
times.  It  must  have  existed,  at  all  events,  before  even 
elementary  ideas  of  decency  had  become  the  property 
of  the  race  or  the  book  of  Genesis  cannot  be  relied  upon 
for  the  story  of  Eve  and  her  apron. 

We  must  remember  that  the  experience  in  savagery 
was  longer  than  in  all  subsequent  periods  together. 
Men  were  savages  much  longer  than  they  have  been 
anything  else.  We  can  only  guess  what  experiments 
and  experiences  in  the  long,  long  darkness  of  savage 
animality  were  made;  but  we  know  that,  at  last,  the 
stored  up  results  of  these  experiences  were  accumu- 
lated, and  that  these  rendered  possible  the  discovery 
and  use  of  the  tool. 

Haeckel  says,  speaking  on  this  very  point,  "There 
cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  development  of 
the  human  race  went  on  by  leaps  after  certain  discov- 
eries had  been  made  ...  to  wit,  those  of  imple- 
ments and  of  fire.  That  creature  which  first  took  up 
a  stone  or  branch  and  wielded  it,  thereby  got  such  an 
advantage  over  his  fellow-creatures  that  his  mental 
and  bodily  development  went  on  apace." 

In  a  recently  published  work  entitled  "Flame,  Elec- 
tricity, and  The  Camera,"  the  author  says:  "Of  the 
strides  taken  by  humanity  on  its  way  to  the  summit 
of  terrestrial  life,  there  are  but  four  worthy  of  men- 
tion as  preparing  the  way  for  the  victories  of  the  elec- 
trician, the  attainment  of  the  upright  attitude,  the  in- 
tentional kindling  of  fire,  the  maturing  of  emotional 
cries  to  articulate  speech,  and  the  invention  of  written 
symbols  for  speech." 


INSTRUMENTS  OF  PRODUCTION  33 

Such  are  the  crude  and  elementary  beginnings  up- 
on which  depend  the  whole  structure  of  economic  pro- 
gress and  the  development  of  material  well  being.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  this  undignified  and  elementary 
origin  of  man's  triumph  should  have  been  intolerable 
to  his  conceit,  and  that  he  should  have  required  a 
demi-god  to  supply  to  him  out  of  the  plentitude  of 
heaven's  resources,  the  ideas  which  are  the  building 
stuff  of  his  progression  (e.  g.  The  Prometheus  Myth.) 

It  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  earlier  stages  that 
the  first  victory  was  achieved.  The  elementary  in- 
ventions gave  man  the  power  to  develop  still  further. 
It  has  been  pointed  out  by  a  modern  economist  that 
the  change  from  the  axehead  of  stone  to  one  of  bronze 
was  of  infinitely  greater  human  import  than  has  been 
the  subsequent  change  of  any  dynasty,  and  that  it 
constituted  in  itself  as  important  an  economic  revolu- 
tion at  least  as  the  change  from  handloom  weaving  to 
steam-driven  machinery.  One  cannot  help  imagining 
that  the  power  of  the  new  bronze  axe  must  have  im- 
pressed itself  very  disagreeably  upon  the  head  of  any 
opposing  tribesman  who  was  armed  only  with  a  flint  one, 
and  that  the  process  of  conviction,  although  more  rapid, 
was  after  all  perhaps  not  more  conclusive  than  that 
employed  by  the  modern  trust  in  dealing  with  the 
small  producer. 

Even  to-day  we  find  tribes  which  are  in  the  most 
rudimentary  state  as  regards  their  instruments  of  pro- 
duction and  hence  in  every  other  sphere  of  activity. 
Thus  the  lower  savages  of  Australia  and  Polynesia 
represent,  perhaps,  the  lowest  stage  which  has  yet  been 
discovered.  They  are  armed  only  with  a  wooden  club 
or  spear,  that  is  with  a  thick  heavy  piece  of  wood  for 


34  THE  RISE  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PROLETARIAN 

striking  purposes,  and  a  pointed  piece  for  piercing  pur- 
poses. 

Morgan's  "Ancient  Society"  gives  a  very  useful  clas- 
sification of  the  leading  stages  in  industrial  develop- 
ment and  the  following  sketch  of  the  ground  covered 
is  taken  very  freely  from  his  book. 

The  next  great  step  was  the  making  of  the  bow  and 
arrow,  a  complicated  tool  consisting  of  several  parts 
and  showing  sufficient  ingenuity  to  make  it  a  matter 
of  surprise  that  it  should  have  appeared  so  early  in 
human  history.  This  was  followed,  or  perhaps,  ac- 
companied by  a  large  number  of  elementary  inven- 
tions such  as  wooden  vessels  and  implements,  finger- 
weaving  with  thread  made  from  the  inner  bark  of  trees, 
and  the  making  of  shaped  and  smooth  stone  tools  as 
distinguished  from  the  rough  tools  of  the  so-called 
palaeolithic  age. 

This  was  soon  succeeded  by  the  making  of  pottery 
which  probably  originated  in  the  smearing  of  clay- 
around  basket  work  in  order  to  make  it  water  tight; 
when  the  basket  work  burned  out  and  left  the  clay 
standing,  the  hint  was  given  for  the  making  of  pot- 
tery. 

The  first  inhabitants  of  England  of  whom  we  have 
any  knowledge  were  in  the  neolithic  age.  They  were 
able  to  spin  and  weave,  mine  for  flints,  make  pottery, 
and  build  boats.  There  must  also  have  been  some  trad- 
ing, for  jade  axes  are  found  at  intervals,  and  these 
must,  of  necessity,  have  been  introduced  from  the 
outside,  as  there  is  no  jade  in  England. 

The  best  type  of  a  period  superior  to  that  in  which 
the  early  British  were,  is  that  of  the  Homeric  age  as 
described  in  Homer's  Iliad.  The  industrial  achieve- 


•INSTRUMENTS  OF  PRODUCTION  35 

ments  of  the  Homeric  Greeks  represent  the  highest 
point  which  has  ever  been  reached  by  a  people  still 
in  a  state  of  barbarism.  They  had  cereals,  cities  with 
walls,  and  used  marble  in  their  buildings.  They  made 
ships  with  planks,  a  great  step  in  advance  of  the  old 
hollowing  out  process,  and  perhaps,  though  this  is  by 
no  means  sure,  used  nails  in  the  construction  of  their 
vessels,  but  wooden  pegs  or  rawhide  served  commonly 
as  a  substitute  for  nails. 

They  possessed  the  wagon  and  the  chariot,  metallic 
plate  armor,  a  copper-pointed  spear,  and  an  iron  sword. 

They  had  all  the  mechanical  powers  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  screw.  The  potter's  wheel  and  a  handmill 
f6r  grinding  corn  were  to  be  found  among  them. 
Among  ordinary  tools  they  possessed  the  iron  axe  and 
spade,  hatchet  and  adze,  hammer  and  anvil,  bellows 
and  forge. 

A  glance  at  this  list  of  tools  will  show  that  these 
Homeric  Greeks  were  about  as  well  equipped  to  con- 
tend against  the  hindrances  and  incumbrances  of  na- 
ture as  were  the  first  settlers  of  New  England.  All 
the  means  of  elementary  achievement  at  least  are  there 
at  hand  and  the  development  from  the  industrial  stage 
in  which  the  early  inhabitants  of  Britain  are  discovered 
is  exceedingly  marked.  For  several  thousand  years  no 
marked  advance  was  made  over  the  place  won  by  the 
Homeric  Greeks  in  the  matter  of  simple  mechanical  im- 
plements. It  rested  with  a  later  age  by  a  subtle  de- 
velopment of  the  tool,  to  place  man  in  a  still  superior 
position,  as  far  as  concerns  his  power  over  the  raw  ma- 
terial. 

These  Greeks  had  also  fabrics  woven  on  a  loom. 
Attention  may  here  be  drawn  to  the  wonderfully  con- 


36  THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

spicuous  part  played  by  women  in  the  development  of 
the  first  industrial  implements  and  in  the  discovery  of 
important  inventions.  The  tasks  of  the  women  in  and 
about  the  camp,  while  the  men  were  out  hunting  or 
fighting,  necessarily  led  them  to  adopt  simpler  means 
of  labor  and  in  the  course  of  their  handling  of  ma- 
terials to  discover  combinations  which  would  ulti- 
mately be  of  use  to  them.  Thus  the  discovery  of  pot- 
tery and  weaving  from  the  first  crude  attempts  with  the 
basket  to  the  weaving  of  material  upon  the  loom  were 
in  all  probability  the  work  of  women,  and  many  other 
of  the  initial  discoveries  and  inventions  which  after- 
wards developed  into  separate  trades,  and,  with  their 
development,  were  parted  from  their  original  discov- 
eries, owed  their  origin  to  women.  It  is  impossible,  in 
such  a  cursory  and  superficial  glance  at  the  subject  at 
the  present,  to  enter  at  any  length  into  this  part  of  the 
question,  which  furnishes  a  very  fine  field  for  investiga- 
tion and  consideration,  for  although  some  attempts 
have  been  made,  a  really  valuable  study  of  the  eco- 
nomic influence  of  the  primitive  woman  has  not  been 
written. 

In  comparison  with  the  ground  won  by  the  better 
developed  barbarians  but  little  progress  was  made  for 
a  long  period  of  time.  The  last  century  and  a  half  have 
added  immeasurably  more  to  the  acquisition  of  the  race, 
than  many  preceding  centuries.  Thus  the  later  Greek 
civilization  succeeding  the  Homeric  age,  and  the  Roman 
civilization  combined  only  added  to  the  store  collected  by 
the  Homeric  Greeks  the  following:  fire-baked  bricks,  the 
crane,  water-wheels  for  driving  mills,  the  bridge,  the 
aqueduct,  the  sewer,  lead-pipe  and  the  fly-wheel. 

When  we  come  to  medieval  times  we  find  a  still 


INSTRUMENTS  OF   PRODUCTION  37 

greater  poverty  of  invention.  In  fact  there  was  but 
little  incentive  to  invent.  The  rigidity  of  the  system, 
the  uncertainty  of  tenure,  the  absence  of  a  market,  and 
the  comparatively  savage  state  of  the  victorious  bar- 
barian tribes  who  had  finally  vanquished  the  Empire, 
were  all  so  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of  industrial  de- 
velopment. The  scattered  farms,  the  wild  and  savage 
life  of  the  feudal  lords,  the  perpetual  warfare,  rendered 
the  period  one  in  which  the  finer  arts  and  the  study  of 
mechanical  appliances  were  as  a  rule  not  only  unnecessary 
but  impossible. 

Only  in  the  quiet  cloister  where  all  men  of  all 
sorts  of  personal  beliefs  found  under  the  protection 
of  the  Church  a  shelter  from  the  boisterous  life  out- 
side and  where  there  was  leisure  and  opportunity  to 
think  out  the  problems  of  work  and  life,  always,  how- 
ever, within  the  strict  bounds  of  ecclesiastical  disci- 
pline, did  invention  progress. 

Under  the  protecting  care  of  the  monks  agriculture 
developed  and  horticulture  began  to  differentiate  it- 
self, fruit  trees  and  flowers  added  their  products  to  the 
sum  total  of  human  enjoyments  and  Roger  Bacon  toil- 
ing with  crucible  and  retort  produced  gunpowder.  The 
elements  of  the  natural  sciences  with  all  their  possibil- 
ities of  future  adaptability  to  the  service  of  man  began 
to  peep  out  from  the  mass  of  superstition  and  knavery 
in  which  they  were  embedded.  Thus  the  Middle  Ages 
dark  as  they  have  been  called  and  unprogressive  as 
the  stupid  bourgeois  is  pleased  to  term  them,  were  in 
reality  a  necessary  interval,  not  a  time  of  retrogression, 
but  a  time  of  strengthening  and  maturing,  a  time  of 
preparation  for  the  possibilities  which  were  opened  by 
the  creation  of  the  market  and  the  rise  of  the  system  of 


38  THE   RISF   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

production  for  exchange  in  distinction  to  production 
for  use. 

But  this  view  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  their  effect 
upon  human  development  has  been  now  generally  ac- 
cepted and  there  is  no  occasion  to  dwell  upon  it.  It  is 
one  more  instance  of  the  rising  revolt  against  the  bour- 
geois philosophy,  even  in  the  schools.  It  is  satisfac- 
tory to  observe  in  this  connection  that  the  socialists 
have  been  in  advance  of  the  universities  in  this  matter, 
as  they  have  been  in  most  other  matters  of  a  political  or 
social  significance. 

As  an  instance  of  the  paucity  of  invention  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  Adam  Smith  mentions  the  fact  that  there  were 
only  three  inventions  in  the  art  of  weaving  woolen  fab- 
rics between  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  and  1760.  These, 
however,  do  not  give  a  complete  idea  of  the  development 
in  that  industry  as  the  invention  of  the  flying  shuttle 
in  1738  is  omitted  from  his  list. 

As  late  as  1760  the  machinery  used  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  cotton  cloth  was  of  a  most  elementary  description, 
in  fact,  it  is  said  to  have  been  as  rudimentary  as  that  used 
among  the  Hindus  for  the  same  purpose, — the  only  differ- 
ences being  that  the  English  machines  were  made  more 
strongly  and  that  cards  had  been  introduced  from  the 
woolen  industry  for  the  purpose  of  combing  the  cotton. 

Morgan  cites  as  the  inventions  peculiar  to  our  civil- 
ization gunpowder,  the  mariner's  compass,  the  canal- 
lock,  printing,  the  ponderability  of  the  atmosphere,  the 
telescope,  the  power-loom,  the  spinning  jenny,  the  steam 
engine  and  the  electric  telegraph.  Of  course  this  list 
is  inadequate  at  the  present  time  for,  since  Morgan  wrote 
this  work  the  whole  subject  of  electricity  has  received 
attention  and  the  results  are  so  well  known  that  it  is 


INSTRUMENTS   OF   PRODUCTION  39 

unnecessary  to  cumber  these  pages  with  the  story.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  the  present  epoch  is  only  at  the  thresh- 
old of  discovery.  The  practical  application  of  science,  the 
spirit  of  investigation,  the  clarifying  of  philosophical  con- 
ceptions, the  decay  of  superstition  and  over  and  above 
all  the  opportunities  for  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  which 
are  open  under  existing  conditions,  to  the  successful  ex- 
ploiter of  new  machinery,  have  given  a  stimulus  to  in- 
vention, and  at  the  same  time  have  destroyed  any  of  that 
moral  hestitancy  in  its  employment,  to  which  the  contem- 
plation of  the  havoc  wrought  by  its  unregulated  use  may 
at  one  time  have  given  rise. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  eventful  year  of  1760, 
as  eventful  as  any  in  the  history  of  the  human  race,  per- 
haps the  most  eventful  in  the  history  of  man ;  for,  in  that 
year  began  that  series  of  discoveries  which  has  caused  a 
complete  change  in  the  social  structure. 

The  world  is  a  different  world  now  than  it  was  in 
1760.  Old  faiths  have  gone  down  in  the  turmoil  like 
logs  down  a  swollen  stream :  old  loyalties  have  been  de- 
stroyed, and,  with  the  loyalties,  the  class  to  which  they 
were  formally  accorded.  Before  the  iron  of  the  machine 
the  power  of  the  sword  and  the  authority  of  the  feudal 
manor  have  been  completely  broken.  Heavy  mortgages, 
impoverished  estates,  and  the  merest  rags  of  dignity 
are  all  that  remain  to  the  all-powerful  nobility,  except  to 
such  families  as  have  sacrificed  every  thing  of  the  feudal 
tradition  but  the  family  name,  and  have  gone  into  trade, 
either  actually  or  by  astute  alliances  with  wealthy  traders. 

The  bourgeois,  arrogant,  inflated  with  the  pride  of 
wealth  which  he  has  gathered  under  circumstances  of  the 
most  appalling  tyranny  on  the  one  hand  and  the  most 
dreadful  suffering  on  the  other,  has  placed  his  heavy  foot 


rv 


40  THE    RISE    OF    THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

upon  the  world  as  its  conqueror,  and  the  world  has 
groaned  under  the  pressure.  Vulgar,  with  the  vulgarity 
of  money-hunting  and  crammed  full  of  the  pietistic 
phrases  which  were  the  stock  in  trade  with  which  he  be- 
gan his  political  movement  the  bourgeois  has  invented  a 
sham  art,  a  sham  culture,  a  sham  religion,  and  a  sham 
literature. 

But  even  his  kingdom  contains  that  contradiction 
which  will  realize  itself  in  the  disappearance  of  the  king- 
dom itself.  Ranged  against  the  bourgeoisie  is  a  new 
class,  one  which  the  rule  of  the  bourgeois  has  itself  called 
into  being:  the  proletarian,  a  new  class,  destined  in  time 
to  be  the  victorious  class. 

At  least  as  remarkable  as  the  change  was  its  rapidity. 
In  a  quarter  of  century,  what  had  been  a  dominant  mode  of 
industry  was  swept  out  of  existence  and  an  entirely  new 
one  substituted  in  its  place.  The  domestic  system  of 
whose  painful  development  we  have  already  taken  notice, 
was  destroyed  and  a  new  and  infinitely  more  powerful 
and  effective  system  substituted  for  it.  In  place  of  the 
cottage  with  its  overcrowded  family  which  depended  for 
its  subsistence  upon  the  garden  patch  or  the  few  acres, 
and  the  product  of  the  little  wheel  or  loom,  rose  the  great 
factory  both  as  monster  and  as  deliverer; — as  monster 
for  it  tore  the  family  to  fragments  and  destroyed  the 
last  remnants  of  the  patriarchal  system  in  the  home, 
slew  the  children,  practically  divorced  the  parents,  and 
packed  fetid  slums  with  the  refuse  of  its  human  energy; 
on  the  other  hand,  as  deliverer,  for  it  contained  in  itself 
the  germ  of  the  higher  and  better  system,  of  which  man 
must  yet  reap  the  benefit.  Even  in  the  factory  system 
the  essential  contradiction  is  apparent;  the  competitive 
anarchy  which  has  driven  the  machines  at  such  headlong 


INSTRUMENTS  OF   PRODUCTION  41 

rate  is  met  by  the  order  and  discipline  of  the  workers, 
a  necessary  harmony  of  action,  so  that  the  machines  may 
accomplish  the  greatest  amount  of  which  they  are  capable, 
and  the  competing  interests  of  the  commodities  and  con- 
sequently of  their  owners  are  antagonized  and  contra- 
dicted by  the  growing  unity  and  community  of  interest 
of  the  workers. 

In  the  year  1770  Hargreaves  invented  the  spinning 
jenny.  This  was  an  improvement  on  the  old  spinning 
wheel.  Formerly,  the  wheel  had  allowed  of  the  spin- 
ning of  but  one  thread  at  a  time.  Hargreaves  by  arrang- 
ing a  frame  with  a  number  of  spindles  side  by  side,  and 
an  apparatus  for  feeding,  brought  it  about  that  many 
threads  could  be  spun  at  once. 

Still  the  essential  problem  had  not  yet  been  solved. 
The  revolution  of  the  modern  epoch  has  depended  not 
upon  a  greater  production  of  handwork  but  upon  the 
elimination  of  handwork  and  the  substitution  for  it  of 
machine  work.  The  first  real  result  in  that  direction  was 
reached  by  Arkwright  who  in  1771  invented  a  spinning 
frame  which  could  run  by  water,  and  in  1789,  a  revolu- 
tionary year,  Crompton  by  a  combination  of  the  two  ma- 
chines produced  the  mule,  which  was  able,  by  means  of 
motive  power,  to  accomplish  the  work  of  many  spinning 
wheels  by  an  almost  automatic  action. 

The  improvements  extended  to  the  weaving  industry, 
and  by  the  invention  of  the  power  loom  in  1785  that 
industry  was  put  upon  a  plane  of  advance,  corresponding 
with  the  position  attained  by  the  spinning  industry,  and 
henceforward,  the  great  step  having  been  made,  there  re- 
mained but  to  improve  the  results  and  to  accommodate 
the  machine  to  the  necessities  of  the  work. 

The  great  fundamental  difficulty  was  a  motor.     It 


42  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

is  evident  that,  mere  human  labor  would  be  inadequate, 
without  external  assistance,  to  accomplish  the  gigantic 
tasks  imposed  upon  it  by  the  new  industry.  Water  and 
wind  had  both  been  called  in  to  assist  the  labors  of  man. 
The  water  wheel  is  a  very  old  invention  dating  back  from 
the  days  of  the  early  Greeks,  its  limitations  are  however 
sufficiently  obvious.  However  valuable  it  might  be  as  an 
auxiliary  in  a  small  district,  where  manufacturing  for 
use  was  the  main  purpose  of  industry,  it  is  evident  that  it 
must  have  fallen  entirely  short  when  the  dominant  work 
of  industry  was  manufacture  for  a  large  and  continually 
growing  market,  where  the  fluctuations  of  price  were  so 
pronounced  that  it  became  a  matter  of  importance  to  get 
one's  wares  in  first. 

Holland  by  reason  of  its  flatness  and  of  its  conse- 
quent slight  fall  for  water,  employed  the  windmill  very 
largely  and  brought  it  to  a  perfection  not  hitherto  attained, 
and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  windmills 
had  become  very  common,  and  were  employed  largely  in 
the  grinding  of  corn,  but  there  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  any  serious  effort  made  to  use  the  power  thus  gener- 
ated for  other  purposes.  The  drawbacks  to  the  employ- 
ment of  wind  are,  though  not  so  obvious  as  those  of 
water,  sufficiently  clear,  and  the  demands  of  the  market 
insisted  upon  a  more  efficacious  means  of  generating 
power  for  the  continually  increasing  requirements  of  pro- 
duction for  the  market.  In  other  words,  when  the  first 
steps  were  made  in  the  substitution  of  the  machine  for 
the  tool,  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  industry  was 
within  the  immediate  grasp  of  man.  Just  as  the  earlier 
inventions  had  taken  long  to  develop  in  their  crude  be: 
ginnings,  so  the  machine  industry  was  slow  to  solve  the 
first  difficulties,  but,  once  established,  the  road  was  com- 


INSTRUMENTS  OF  PRODUCTION  43 

paratively  straight,  and  the  discovery  of  a  constant  and 
powerful  motor  was  the  only  thing  lacking  to  the  com- 
plete development  of  modern  industry  after  the  primary 
inventions  already  recounted. 

In  April,  1784,  this  problem  was  solved.  Watts  took 
out  his  patent  for  his  so-called  double  action  steam- 
engine.  He  with  a  keenness  of  economic  foresight, 
which  has  been,  unfortunately,  for  most  inventors,  absent 
from  their  dispositions,  described  it  in  his  specifications 
as  an  agent  universally  applicable  to  mechanical  industry. 
Here  was  the  motor  which  was  sought — independent  of 
weather,  constant  in  its  action,  easily  regulated,  able 
to  run  night  and  day,  summer  and  winter,  and  with  its 
iron  force  to  crush  out  all  opposition,  creating  that  iron 
force  itself,  and  requiring  only  to  be  fed  with  coal  and 
water. 

Before  the  creation  of  the  double  action  steam  engine, 
Watt  and  Boulton  had  entered  into  partnership  to  carry 
on  an  industry  fraught  with  as  much  importance  to  mod- 
ern society  as  the  invention  of  that  engine  itself.  Watt 
had  invented  a  pump  to  be  driven  by  steam.  This  the 
partnership  proceeded  to  put  in  operation.  The  sinking 
of  shafts  for  coal  which  had  up  to  the  present  been  im- 
possible to  any  great  degree  was  thus  rendered  possible, 
and  food  for  the  new  iron  monster  was  thus  regularly 
secured. 

For  it  the  proletariat  must  work  at  the  bottom  of 
great  holes,  in  Stygian  darkness,  with  a  miserable  death 
impending  all  the  time,  so  that  the  monster  may  be  fed 
and  enabled  to  devour  the  children  of  the  working  class 
in  the  prisons,  above  ground,  called  factories. 

The  effect  of  this  ability  to  obtain  coal  upon  a  great 
scale  is  of  course  obvious.  Iron  at  once  became  absolutely 


44  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

essential.  This  led  to  the  removal  of  the  center  of  the 
iron  industry.  The  forests  of  the  South  of  England  had 
furnished  the  charcoal  necessary,  and  hence  had  been  the 
chief  place  of  manufacture,  but  now,  the  coal  fields  of 
the  North  were  more  essential  to  the  well  being  of  a  trade 
which  under  the  demand  for  new  machines,  and  all  the 
iron  work  incidental  to  them  became  more  and  more 
prominent. 

Smeaton's  new  and  powerful  bellows  in  addition  made 
the  iron  industry  upon  a  large  scale  possible,  and  so  this 
industry  developed  greater  and  greater  energy.  In  the 
iron  industry  alone  there  were  no  less  than  three  new 
great  inventions  between  1766  and  1784. 

The  new  machines  with  their  intricate  construction 
and  the  amount  of  hard  metal  of  which  they  were  com- 
posed, offered  another  problem.  The  tools  at  the 
disposal  of  the  artisans  were  not  of  a  nature  to 
cope  with  these  technical  difficulties,  and  the  making 
of  the  machines  required  by  the  new  system  would 
have  been  an  entire  impossibility  had  it  not  been 
for  one  invetnion,  the  slide  rest.  This  rendered  pos- 
sible the  shaping  and  handling  of  the  iron,  the  new 
machine  had  found  the  machine  capable  of  making 
it,  and  the  cycle  of  invention  was  now  complete. 
All  the  conditions  for  a  transformation  of  the  mode  of 
industry  were  fulfilled.  The  system  of  manufacture  for 
the  market  had  stimulated  production  and,  hence,  re- 
quired the  creation  of  more  effective  tools  of  production 
than  had  hitherto  existed.  The  making  of  new  com- 
modities in  turn  aroused  new  demands,  and  the  market 
expanded  continually,  offering  fresh  and  more  glittering 
rewards  to  the  most  successful  invader,  and  thus  again 
flogging  the  new  machines  and  the  human  slaves  which 


INSTRUMENTS   OF   PRODUCTION  45 

tended  them  to  still  renewed  activity,  until  the  nation 
reeled  and  almost  broke  under  the  consuming  passion  for 
money,  and  generations  of  children  were  offered  as  a 
sacrifice  upon  the  shrine  of  manufacturing  progress. 
The  entire  edifice  of  modern  culture  and  refinement  is 
built  upon  the  bones  of  murdered  children,  and  this  is 
true  wherever  modern  industry  has  gained  a  place. 

England  introduced  the  system  and  set  the  pace. 
Other  nations  had  to  follow  her  or  succumb.  The 
United  States  with  all  its  natural  advantages  and  re- 
sources, with  its  freedom  of  contract,  and  its  entire  ab- 
sence of  any  medieval  fetters,  plunged  headlong  into 
the  fray,  and  to-day  is  emerging  from  the  battle  a  victor 
in  the  fight  for  commercial  supremacy. 

But  she,  also,  is  paying  the  same  price.  The  towns 
with  their  slum  populations  grow  and  become  more  and 
more  terrible  in  the  hopelessness  of  the  problem  which 
they  offer  for  solution  to  statesman  and  philanthropist. 
Not  only  that,  but  in  spite  of  the  terrible  example  of 
Great  Britain,  the  same  sacrifice  of  children  is  demanded, 
and  the  new  textile  industry  of  the  South  shrieks  for  its 
Minotaur  banquet  just  as  did  the  cotton  mills  of  Lanca- 
shire. The  path  seems  to  be  a  monotony — the  machine 
and  factory  industry  must  be  established  if  the  national 
capitalists  are  to  make  profits  in  the  markets  of  the 
world,  and  nations  nowadays  exist  for  no  other  purpose 
than  that  national  capitalists  should  make  their  profits. 
To  this  end  children  are  sacrificed,  the  country  is  wasted, 
its  resources  are  dissipated,  and  the  new  machinery,  whose 
advent  might  have  been  a  blessing,  is  turned  into  a  means 
of  national  degradation  and  of  ultimate  decay. 

The  machine  possesses  some  points  of  variation  from 
the  tool.  Marx  has  pointed  out  some  of  the  chief  of 


46  THE   RISE   OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

these  differences  with  his  usual  careful  analytic  power. 
Thus,  he  says,  that  a  machine  consists  of  a  motor  power 
plus  a  transmitting  power  and  a  tool.  It  must  have  a 
motive  power,  whatever  form  that  power  may  assume; 
whether  water,  gas?  steam  or  the  hundred  and  one  other 
means  of  mechanical  propulsion  which  have  been  dis- 
coveredj  since  first  the  invention  of  the  steam  engine 
seriously  turned  the  minds  of  men  to  the  discovery  of 
mechanical  driving  power.  It  must  also  have  an  arrange- 
ment for  transmitting  that  driving  power  so  as  to  bring 
it  into  connection  with  the  tool,  and  this  force  must  be 
intended  to  accomplish  a  certain  specific  work. 

The  tool  is  the  earliest  form  of  the  instrument  of 
production.  It  is,  as  it  were,  a  part  of  the  human  body 
a  prolongation  of  the  bodily  organs,  and  is  guided  by 
the  muscles  which  in  their  turn  are  directed  and  con- 
trolled by  the  human  will,  acting  under  the  influence  of 
human  experience  and  intelligence.  Hence  the  man  con- 
trols the  tool.  Every  bit  of  work  done  by  the  tool  is  the 
work  of  the  man,  the  result  of  consciousness  and  inten- 
tion, so  that  it  may,  in  the  fullest  sense,  be  said  that  the 
work  accomplished  by  him  is  his  product,  his  own  crea- 
ture. In  the  machine,  however,  the  tool  is  separated  from 
the  man,  it  is  no  longer  under  his  influence  or  control, 
he  can  no  longer  direct  it,  he  must  follow  the  machine; 
no  longer  does  he  create;  he  merely  serves.  Thus  a 
merely  mechanical  process  is  established  without  a  cor- 
responding mental  one,  with  the  result  that  much  of  the 
work  can  be  performed  as  well  by  children  as  adults, 
a  fact  which  led  to  the  early  employment  of  children. 
They  are  just  as  well  able  as  grown  up  people  to  follow 
the  movements  of  a  machine.  These  movements  are 
monotonous,  completing  a  cycle,  and  in  this  respect  dif- 


INSTRUMENTS  OF  PRODUCTION  47 

fer  from  those  of  the  tool,  which  are  separate,  each  be- 
ing the  result  of  the  individual  volition.  Hence  arises 
the  outcry  against  the  degradation  of  art.  Much  of 
this,  as  far  as  the  middle  class  esthetes  are  concerned, 
is  mere  talk  and  pretence,  but  the  decay  of  artistic  handi- 
work, particularly  of  spontaneous  artistic  work  done 
by  artisans  in  the  ordinary  course  of  their  daily  labor 
cannot  be  doubted. 

The  tool  has  been  taken  from  the  hand  of  the  laborer, 
his  skill  accumulated  through  generations  of  trained 
work  has  been  thrown  on  the  scrap  heap,  he  is  exiled 
from  the  opportunities  of  creation  or  even  of  reasonable 
artistic  liberty  in  his  own  work,  and  worse  than  all  he  has 
got  used  to  it  and  does  not  appear  to  mind.  The  labor 
has  lost  its  zest:  the  iron  of  the  machine  has  eaten  into 
the  soul  of  the  artisan.  Henceforth  work  is  not  expression, 
but  grind,  to  be  accomplished  as  easily  as  possible  and  to 
be  compensated  for  by  indulgence  in  cheap,  potent,  and 
vilely  adulterated  drugs.  The  market  needs  speed  and 
cheapness  in  the  making  of  commodities,  which  means 
in  plain  words  the  sacrifice  of  those  engaged  in  their  pro- 
duction. 

This  is  not  the  place  however  to  consider  the  ethical 
and  artistic  effects  of  the  introduction  of  the  great  ma- 
chine industry.  The  point  is  that  the  machine  has  had  an 
evolution;  that  this  evolution  has  developed  with  aston- 
ishing rapidity  during  the  period  of  a  century  and  a  half, 
and  that  it  shows  not  the  slightest  signs  of  diminishing 
in  power  and  velocity,  but  rather  the  contrary.  The  de- 
mand for  fresh  inventions  is  stimulated  continually  and 
the  disturbance  and  displacement  caused  by  their  sudden 
and  uncalculated  introduction  tends  to  disturb  the  finan- 
cial market,  to  glut  the  accumulated  stores,  to  throw  men 


48  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

idle  upon  the  streets  and  to  reduce  prosperous  artisans  to 
the  level  of  the  lower  proletariat. 

At  the  same  time  the  power  which  resides  in  a  new 
machine  and  the  market  rewards  for  the  promoter  of  a 
new  method  of  producing,  at  a  saving,  continually  leads 
to  new  invention,  causes  the  institution  of  technical 
schools,  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  fundamental 
laws  of  mechanics,  and  thus  greater  sagacity  in  the  making 
and  controlling  of  new  machines.  It  converts  the  univer- 
sity into  a  breeding  place  for  the  upper  slaves  of  the  mid- 
dle class,  for  those  who  themselves  can  never  hope  to  be 
capitalists,  but  who  may  be  managers,  foremen,  or  in- 
ventors, who  are  unable  to  market  their  own  invention, 
and  so  must  give  their  labor  to  the  capitalist  in  exchange 
for  the  means  of  subsistence. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  break  up  of  the  leuda. 
system  meant  not  only  the  destruction  of  the  nobility 
but  the  creation  of  the  proletariat.  This  was  primarily 
accomplished  by  an  economic  revolution  and  was  accentu- 
ated by  the  mechanical  changes  which  followed  in  the 
wake  of  that  economic  revolution.  Thus  the  proletarian 
was  driven  to  greater  and  greater  extremes  of  proletarian- 
ism  by  virtue  of  the  changes  in  the  machine,  and  losing 
his  skill  was  obliged  to  succumb  beneath  the  weight  of 
the  overpowering  economic  pressure.  But  in  the  natural 
course  of  events,  the  employer  is  bound  to  give  educa- 
tional opportunities  to  the  proletarians  that  he  may  in- 
stitute, and  manage,  the  machines,  and  thus  the  education 
of  the  proletarian  has  changed  from  that  which  was  appro- 
priate to  the  production  of  individual  small  commodities, 
to  the  education  which  fits  him  for  the  management  of 
great  social  economic  instruments.  So,  out  of  the 
very  class  of  the  proletariat  itself  are  provided  the  of- 


INSTRUMENTS  OF   PRODUCTION  49 

ficers  who  will  be  competent  to  manage  the  economic  ar- 
rangements in  the  event  of  that  class,  by  a  political  revolu- 
tion, obtaining  possession  of  the  instruments  of  pro- 
duction. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM 

It  is  now  appropriate  to  consider  the  origin  of  the 
peculiar  modern  system  of  manufacture  which  consti- 
tutes the  present  and  more  highly  developed  form  of 
production — the  Factory  System. 

The  various  anterior  systems  paved  the  way  for  its 
introduction,  and  the  gradual  improvements  in  ma- 
chinery made  possible  its  development.  Its  sudden  ar- 
rival swept  away  like  a  devouring  pestilence  the  home 
and  all  that  the  home  stood  for;  it  converted  a  strong 
peasantry  into  a  puny  set  of  slaves,  it  set  "Timour 
Mammon  high  on  his  pile  of  childrens'  bones,"  and 
defied  all  the  decencies. 

But  by  some  strange  alchemy,  that  system  which 
appeared  to  be  fraught  with  the  most  disastrous  con- 
sequences, and  which  almost  succeeded  in  destroying 
the  very  life  of  the  nation  which  first  employed  it,  is 
now  the  greatest  and  most  promising  possession  which 
the  laboring  classes  have  ever  had  thrust  upon  them. 
The  very  herding  of  the  workers  together  in  the  un- 
sanitary shed,  where  the  machine  ground  out  its  cease- 
less task,  was  the  beginning  of  modern  working-class 
association;  the  sameness  as  well  as  the  dreariness  of 
the  employment  spoke  to  them  continually  of  identity 
of  interest,  preaching  a  sermon  punctuated  with  the 
hiss  and  shriek  of  the  engine,  the  wail  of  the  child 


50 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  51 

flogged  at  its  task,  and  the  scream  of  the  murdered 
victim  dragged  to  death  by  the  unguarded  machinery. 

It  is  probable  that  no  age  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  with  all  its  record  of  suffering  and  its  sickening 
monotony  of  pain  and  death,  ever  furnished  such  a 
ghastly  record  as  did  the  factory  system  in  its  earliest 
days.  Its  history  or  at  least,  some  of  it,  is  open  to  the 
student  in  the  pages  of  English  blue-books;  the  agi- 
tation of  the  Christian  socialists,  the  burning  pages  of 
Engels'  "Condition  of  the  Working  Classes  in  Eng- 
land," and  the  violent  splenetics  of  Carlyle,  all  of  which 
bear  testimony  to  its  horror.  And  the  tale  is  even  yet 
not  complete,  for  it  must  be  mentioned  with  shame 
that  the  United  States  to-day  allows  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  same  kind  of  infamies  which  have  made  the 
name  of  the  English  manufacturers  a  hissing  and  re- 
proach throughout  the  world. 

The  break  up  of  the  medieval  towns  was  in  great 
measure  due  to  the  exactions  of  the  gilds,  and  from  the 
decay  of  these  towns  dates  the  beginning,  in  a  rudi- 
mentary way,  of  the  factory  system.  The  limitations 
imposed  upon  the  manufacture  of  articles  which  were 
in  the  hands  of  certain  powerful  gild-masters  and  the 
tendency  on  the  part  of  these  gild-masters  to  gain 
complete  monopolies  to  themselves  caused  the  move- 
ment of  the  more  adventurous  of  the  journeymen  to 
open  villages  where  gild  exactions  did  not  prevail, 
and  where  freedom  of  operation  in  the  manufacture  of 
commodities  and  something  like  freedom  as  regards 
the  relations  of  master  and  servant,  might  be  had. 

These  industrial  villages  were  not  places  where  the 
cottage  or  domestic  system  of  industry  was  carried  on, 
but  were  populated  by  laborers  and  their  families,  as- 


5  THE  RISE  OF  THE  AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

sociated  under  control  of  one  person,  who  organized 
this  labor  upon  capitalistic  lines.  That  is  to  say, 
there  was  a  direct  freedom  from  restrictions  in  the 
matter  of  wages  and  hours  of  labor  which  the  gild 
system  had  imposed,  and  at  the  same  time  there  was  a 
disciplinary  control  which  did  not  obtain  under  the 
domestic  system,  here  the  middle-man  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  organization  of  industry  but  was  merely 
concerned  in  the  making  of  profits.  It  is  noticeable 
that  from  these  industrial  villages  developed  many  of 
the  largest  of  the  English  manufacturing  towns  of  the 
present  day.  Certain  local  advantages,  such  as  prox- 
imity to  a  coal  and  iron  region,  might  have  made  their 
growth  inevitable,  but  they  were  promising  and  grow- 
ing places  before  manufacture  had  become  the  creature 
of  its  own  motive  power,  and  this,  very  largely,  from 
the  fact  of  the  liberty  which  was  enjoyed  by  their  in- 
habitants. 

But  it  must  be  apparent  that  the  organization  of 
industry  when  the  machines  were  of  so  small  a  size 
as  to  demand,  generally  speaking,  an  individual  for 
each  machine,  was  not  altogether  a  very  successful 
method  of  production,  for  although  even  under  such 
circumstances,  the  mere  fact  of  human  association 
probably  led  to  an  increase  in  output,  yet  the  dis- 
ciplinary control  and  the  necessity  for  detailed  over- 
seership  made  the  industrial  village  an  unsatisfactory 
experiment.  Still  some  employers  gained  important 
successes  even  in  the  industrial  village,  and  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  earlier  part  of  the  six- 
teenth centuries,  certain  of  these  manufacturers  were 
very  notable  persons.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned 
the  famous  "Jack  of  Newbury,"  who  was  a  prominent 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  53 

manufacturer  of  kerseys,  and  kept  a  hundred  looms 
running  steadily.  He  was  powerful  and  rich  enough 
to  equip  and  send  to  the  Battle  of  Flodden  Field  a 
hundred  of  his  journeymen  as  soldiers. 

This  fact  in  itself  is  eloquent  of  the  decay  of  the 
feudal  nobility.  In  the  fact  that  a  common  merchant 
and  manufacturer  could  send  a  hundred  soldiers  at  a 
time  when  the  keeping  of  retainers  by  feudal  nobles 
was  already  forbidden  by  law,  we  see  the  downfall  of 
the  old  regime  to  have  been  practically  accomplished, 
at  least  in  Great  Britain. 

These  journeymen  of  the  manufacturers  were  to  be 
employed  on  scores  of  bloody  fields  henceforward. 
They  were  to  go  shouting  in  their  red  coats  after 
Marlborough  through  the  fertile  lands  of  Europe,  to 
fight  hand  to  hand  with  French  journeymen  on  the 
Heights  of  Abraham,  to  engage  the  dusky  hordes  of 
India,  and  to  roar  through  the  Pyrenees  in  mad  pur- 
suit of  what  was  left  of  the  Grand  Army.  In  blue  coats 
they  were  to  march  through  the  Southern  States  and 
to  break  up  a  rival  system  to  their  own,  founded  on 
chattel  slavery,  they  were  to  demolish  the  power  of 
Spain  in  a  few  weeks'  fighting,  and  to  chase  patriots 
and  ladrones  in  vain  pursuit,  for  years  through  the  fetid 
jungles  and  reeking  swamps  of  the  Philippine  Islands. 
Red,  or  buff,  or  white,  or  blue,  they  all  serve  the  same 
class.  "Jack  of  Newbury V  hundred  journeymen  have 
become  the  armies  of  the  modern  world — the  strong 
right  arm  of  the  trader,  wearing  his  badge,  expending 
labor  force  on  the  battle  field  just  as  their  fellows  ex- 
pend it  in  the  factories,  mines,  and  machine  shops. 
The  hundred  journeymen,  the  soldiers  of  a  mere  mer- 
chant and  manufacturer,  upon  whom  the  decadent 


54  THE   RISE   OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

feudal  nobility  looked  scornfully  down,  have  grown 
into  the  great  modern  military  system  with  its  millions 
of  men  continually  under  arms,  its  well  nigh  intol- 
erable load  of  vice  and  taxation — the  great  system  of 
modern  standing  armies  with  the  German  war  lord  as 
its  glittering  commander-in-chief,  and  Rudyard  Kip- 
ling as  its  prophet  and  laureate. 

But  the  factory  system  was  not  to  be  introduced  at 
once.  The  industrial  villages  were  the  first  feeble  at- 
tempts to  initiate  a  system  which  the  machinery  of  that 
day  was  as  yet  unable  to  properly  carry  out.  The 
ground  had  to  be  cleared,  the  gild  system  abolished, 
free  labor  created,  and  all  the  encumbrances  of  feudal 
privileges  and  royal  prerogatives  cleared  off  the  track 
before  the  panoply  of  the  new  proprietary  class  could 
be  forged,  and  the  might  of  broad  acres,  cultivated 
by  a  subject  tenantry,  converted  into  the  might  of  hum- 
ming factories,  brought  into  existence,  and  controlled  by 
a  sweating  and  dying  crowd  of  nominally  free  slaves. 

War  and  revolution  were  the  precursors  of  the  change. 
Travail  and  blood  is  the  price  which  nature  demands 
for  a  new  birth,  and  the  introduction  of  the  modern  sys- 
tem was  an  epoch  of  such  blood  and  travail. 

The  French  wars,  which  were  wars  for  commercial 
mastery,  stimulated  demand  and  the  means  at  hand  were 
inadequate  to  meet  the  requirements.  How  the  problem 
of  production  was  finally  solved  by  the  introduction  of 
the  machine  has  already  been  described  and  "the  tumult 
and  the  shouting"  died  away,  leaving  in  its  place  one 
powerful  dominating  people,  masters  of  the  industrial 
world. 

In  place  of  the  quiet  country  districts,  with  the  un- 
eventful and  happy  life  of  their  inhabitants,  monstrous 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  55 

eities  had  arisen,  over  which  hung  perpetual  clouds  of 
smoke.  The  whirr  of  wheels  and  the  clangor  of  machin- 
ery reverberated  through  the  alleys,  where  once  had  been 
green  fields,  and  the  little  children  who  played  by  the 
brooks,  and  poached  in  the  woods  were  imprisoned  in  the 
fortresses  of  the  new  masters  and  compelled  to  toil  for 
their  subsistence.  They  were  flogged  at  their  tasks  often 
until  they  literally  dropped,  and  their  little  bodies  bruised 
with  work  and  blows  were  huddled  into  the  grave,  in 
many  cases,  secretly,  so  that  the  world  should  not  be  in- 
formed of  the  sacrifice  which  the  newly  instituted  factory 
system  had  rendered  necessary.  As  early  as  1795  a  cer- 
tain Dr.  Aiken  describes  in  plain  language  the  change 
which  had  taken  place  in  the  habits  and  manners  of  the 
people,  owing  to  the  introduction  of  the  new  methods 
of  production.  He  says: 

"The  sudden  invention  and  improvement  of  ma- 
chinery have  had  surprising  influence  to  extend  our  trade 
and  also  to  call  in  from  all  parts,  particularly  children, 
for  the  cotton  mills."  After  enumerating  the  effects  of 
this  system  upon  the  health  and  morals  of  the  commu- 
nity, we  find  him  saying :  "The  females  are  wholly  unin- 
structed  in  knitting,  sewing  and  other  domestic  affairs 
requisite  to  make  them  frugal  wives  and  mothers.  This 
is  a  very  great  misfortune  to  them  and  to  the  public  as  is 
very  easily  proved  by  a  comparison  of  the  laborers  in  hus- 
bandry and  those  of  manufacture  in  general.  In  the 
former  we  meet  with  neatness,  cleanliness  and  comfort, 
in  the  latter  with  filth,  rags  and  poverty." 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  working  classes  suc- 
cumbed to  the  factory  system  without  a  struggle.  They 
were,  for  the  most  part,  literally  starved  into  it.  Their 
old  methods  were  absolutely  powerless  against  the  new, 


56  THE  RISE  OF  THE  AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

and  want  confronted  them  if  they  did  not  take  their  places 
along  with  others  of  their  class  in  the  factories.  They 
regarded  the  new  employment  with  loathing  and  contempt, 
and  a  girl  who  worked  in  the  factory  was  treated  with  a 
certain  contumely  by  other  working  girls  who  had  not  la- 
bored at  a  machine.  It  was,  even  as  late  as  the  forties, 
the  boast  of  many  Lancashire  working-class  families  that 
they  had  never  worked  in  a  factory,  and  even  to  this 
day,  though  the  old  form  of  hand-loom  weaving  is  en- 
tirely abolished  and  the  great  majority  of  the  people  have 
been  driven  into  factory-work  in  one  form  or  another, 
the  same  stigma  attaches,  in  some  degree,  to  the  occupa- 
tion. 

This  is  not  surprising  when  the  actual  conditions 
under  which  labor  was  performed  in  these  places  are  con- 
sidered. Physical  and  moral  degradation  of  the  lowest 
type  and  the  very  crudest  species  of  brutality  were  the 
concomitants  of  the  system  in  its  inception.  It  is  very 
doubtful  if  in  the  most  tyrannical  times  of  human  history, 
when  slavery  was  at  its  lowest  point,  and  unlimited  power 
of  life  and  death  over  chattels,  was  the  recognized  right 
of  their  proprietor  the  mass  of  men  suffered  more.  Nay, 
it  is  almost  certain  that  the  suffering  was  in  reality  less, 
for  there  existed  in  slavery  a  certain  personal  relation 
which  tended  always  to  obviate  the  most  brutal  of  its 
features  and  a  slave  possessed  a  certain  pecuniary  value 
which  could  not  be  replaced  in  the  event  of  his  death.  In 
the  factory  system  and  indeed  in  the  entire  modern  sys- 
tem the  personal  element  is  practically  abolished  and  the 
proprietor  is  seldom  brought  into  actual  contact  with  his 
employes,  hence  the  finer  feelings  are  not  called  upon. 
Again  the  free  market,  by  placing  an  unlimited  field  of 
labor  exploitation  at  the  disposal  of  the  employer,  does 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  57 

away  with  the  necessity  of  any  care  on  his  part  for  the 
physical  well  being  of  his  work-people. 

It  was  owing  to  these  facts  that  the  employing  classes 
of  England  were  so  obtuse  with  regard  to  the  treatment 
of  their  "hands,"  and  well  meaning  philanthropic  factory- 
owners  would  go  on  their  way  to  meetings  called  for  the 
abolition  of  negro  slavery,  passing,  as  has  been  said,  their 
own  factories,  blazing  with  light  and  humming  with  ac- 
tivity, where  little  children  of  their  own  race  were  wast- 
ing their  feeble  lives  in  hard  and  unremitting  toil,  aver- 
aging sometimes  as  much  as  sixteen  hours,  and  frequently 
fourteen  hours  a  day. 

The  time  came,  however,  when  the  enormity  of  the 
system  began  to  impress  itself  upon  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple at  large  and  an  efficient  and  active  agitation  was  com- 
menced against  the  excesses  of  the  manufacturers.  This 
was  a  very  difficult  task,  for  the  politicians  were  wedded 
to  the  economic  doctrines  of  individualism  or  "laissez- 
faire,"  as  the  slang  expression  ran,  and  any  interference 
with  the  existing  order  in  the  direction  of  what  was,  cu- 
riously enough,  called  freedom  of  contract,  met  with  the 
most  violent  opposition  on  the  part  of  those  in  author- 
ity, and,  particularly,  at  the  hands  of  those  who  were 
considered  to  be  the  popular  leaders,  the  radicals.  This 
party  represented  the  interests  of  the  manufacturing 
classes  and  opposed  with  might  and  main  the  least  in- 
vasion of  their  sphere.  Such  men  as  John  Bright  vehe- 
mently contested  every  effort  to  ameliorate  the  condition 
of  the  workers.  The  philanthropists  had  to  contend  not 
only  with  a  stupid  and  unthinking  populace,  but  with 
the  intellect  of  the  time.  The  economists  were  leagued  to- 
gether to  defend  to  the  last  ditch  the  freedom  of  children 
to  contract  their  lives  away,  and  of  women  to  labor  in 


58  THE   RISE   OF  THE   AMERICAN   PROLETARIAN 

unhealthy  and  immoral  conditions.  Not  only  this,  but 
the  proletariat  itself  had  become  to  a  great  extent  de- 
bauched by  the  system  in  which  it  was  compelled  to  labor, 
and  many  of  the  men  deriving  an  income  from  the  labor 
of  their  own  children,  opposed  the  agitation  for  the  re- 
lease of  their  offspring  from  what  was  worse  than  slavery. 

These  two  features  of  this  period  of  agitation  are  well 
worth  more  than  a  passing  notice,  for  they  are  most 
valuable  as  showing  the  incapacity  of  the  people  in  au- 
thority to  consider  and  provide  against  actual  evils  in  a 
dominant  system. 

The  possessing  classes  and  their  intellectual  servants 
are  invariably  the  enemies  of  popular  movements.  They 
are  wedded  to  the  present,  for  from  the  present  they  de- 
rive their  power,  and  any  interference  with  the  existing 
order  is  naturally  enough  regarded  by  them  with  appre- 
hension. This  astigmatism  though  unrecognized,  is  none 
the  less  there,  and  may  be  described  as  almost  instinctive. 
It  is  the  same,  not  only  in  economics,  but  also  in  art  and 
literature,  and  all  other  matters  connected  with  social  life. 

The  factory  system  might  have  existed  until  it  had 
actually  destroyed  all  the  vigor  and  force  of  the  English 
stock,  as  it  narrowly  escaped  doing,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
the  antagonism  between  the  possessing  landed  classes  and 
the  purely  commercial  class. 

Heavy  duties  had  been  imposed  upon  grain  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  landed  classes.  These  duties  were  regarded 
by  the  commercial  classes  as  a  due  levied  upon  themselves, 
and  tending  to  impede  the  progress  of  industry,  thus 
placing  them  at  a  disadvantage.  Hence  arose  the  agita- 
tion for  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  by  which  the  manu- 
facturing classes  hoped  to  reap  greater  profits  and  to  ef- 
fectually offset  the  competition  which  was  arising  on  the 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  59 

continent  of  Europe  in  manufacturing  for  the  world-mar- 
ket and  which  is  today  bearing  fruit  in  the  aggressive 
commercial  tactics  of  Germany. 

The  Corn  Laws  were  repealed  and  the  landed  gentry 
were  plunged  from  affluence  into  comparative  poverty, 
the  agricultural  interests  of  Great  Britain  were  sacrificed 
to  the  commercial  interests.  Prior  to  this,  however,  the 
representatives  of  the  landed  interests  had  made  a  be- 
ginning of  the  Factory  Acts  and  had  supported  the  ef- 
forts of  the  philanthropists  and  reformers.  Hence  was 
born  that  curious  hybrid  denominated  Tory  Democracy 
which,  by  pretending  to  support  the  working  population 
in  its  struggle  against  the  employers,  has  converted  a 
great  number  of  the  manufacturing  towns,  formerly  the 
source  of  strength  of  the  Liberal  or  capitalistic  party,  into 
steady  supporters  of  a  so-called  Conservative  party.  But 
the  course  of  time  has  wiped  out  these  distinctions,  and 
the  landed  party  has  saved  its  hide,  so  far,  by  amalga- 
mating with  the  manufacturers  and  forming  one  great 
party  for  the  upholding  of  the  greater  capitalism.  This, 
by  the  way,  but  it  is  obvious  therefrom  that  not  from 
philanthropy,  or  even  from  the  most  generous  sentiments 
does  progress  come,  but  from  the  conflict  of  material  in- 
terests which  impel  classes  of  men  to  go  down  into  the 
arena  and  fight  for  them,  as  Lassalle,  with  a  somewhat 
hyperbolic  oratory,  says  that  we  are  forced  by  our  ideas. 

The  fact  that  the  working  classes  themselves  opposed 
their  own  deliverance  is  considered  by  some  as  evidence 
of  their  irreclaimable  sordidness,  but  it  is,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  merely  an  evidence  of  the  terrible  struggle  which 
they  must  make  in  order  to  exist.  It  was  continually 
preached  to  them  that  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor 
meant  the  reduction  of  wages  and,  as  want,  even  in  the 


60  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

best  circumstances,  stared  them  ever  in  the  face,  they 
shrank  back  in  alarm  at  the  prospect  which  the  philan- 
thropist held  out  to  them,  for  one  must  live,  even  if  he 
lives  like  a  dog. 

There  is  nothing  to  be  gained  by  following  further  the 
course  of  factory  legislation.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  once 
begun,  act  after  act  was  passed  to  make  the  condition  of 
these  slaves  more  tolerable,  and  though  little  enough  has 
been  done  up  to  the  present,  the  conditions  are  infinitely 
improved  and  there  is  some  grounds  for  the  belief  that  the 
improvement  will  be  constant  and  progressive.  It  is 
worth  noting,  however,  that  these  reforms  were  not  car- 
ried out  without  much  labor  and  care,  and  the  first  acts 
were  rendered  almost  abortive,  owing  to  the  wicked  care- 
lessness and  negligence  of  corrupt  officials.  Factory  in- 
spectors regularly  shirked  their  duties  and  the  whole  feel- 
ing of  coroners'  juries,  of  the  school  authorities,  and  even 
of  the  great  mass  of  the  clergy,  was  for  the  most  part  on 
the  side  of  the  factory  owners.  But  for  the  unremitting 
zeal  of  the  reformers,  and  for  the  formation  of  trades 
unions,  by  the  workers,  the  acts  would  have  been  rendered 
practically  valueless.  The  same  thing  is  common  enough 
nowadays,  everywhere,  and  legislation  which  should  pro- 
tect the  worker  is  made  a  mere  farce  by  the  purchase  of 
officials  and  inspectors  by  the  class  in  power.  Thus  we 
frequently  read  of  mining  inspectors  reporting  workings 
as  free  from  gas,  and  a  few  hours  afterwards  in  those 
very  workings  many  workers  meet  the  death  from  which 
the  inspector  was  employed  and  paid  to  protect  them. 

Yet  progress  is  made  and  in  that  fact  lies  one  of  the 
chief  values  of  the  factory  system.  The  possibilities  of 
inspection  and  improvement  are  simply  unlimited,  and 
there  is  no  reason  why  this  mode  of  labor  should  not  be 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  61 

rendered  at  once  comparatively  pleasant  or,  at  least,  en- 
tirely decent  and  respectable. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  first  periods  of  industrial 
systems  display  all  their  worst  points.  They  come  into 
existence  unregulated  and  unassuaged  and  thus  work  their 
evil  before  the  masses  of  the  people  are  aware  of  their 
deficiencies.  Thus  it  was  with  the  system  of  slavery  in 
Rome.  The  law  of  the  later  Roman  empire  shows,  stage 
by  stage,  a  recognition  of  the  evils  wrought  by  unregu- 
lated slavery,  and  a  constant  effort  to  repress  the  most 
obvious  of  these  evils.  So  it  was  with  the  factory  sys- 
tem. Its  first  evils  have  been  mitigated,  and  in  some 
cases  entirely  removed.  But  just  as  the  gradual  improve- 
ment of  the  condition  of  the  slaves  presaged  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery,  and  the  practical  delivery  of  the  servile 
masses  from  the  yoke  of  their  master,  so  the  gradual  im- 
provement in  the  conditions  of  factory  employment,  and 
the  insistence  by  the  State  upon  the  more  humane  treat- 
ment of  the  factory  employes  means  the  abolition  of  the 
factory  system  as  a  means  of  individual  exploitation  and 
the  substitution  for  it  of  free  collective  labor. 

This  is  a  long  cry,  but  that  it  has  a  certain  basis  in 
reason  may  be  seen  from  a  consideration  of  the  effect 
which  the  factory  system  has  had  upon  the  operatives 
themselves.  This  will  show  that  the  factory  system  is  by 
no  means  to  be  entirely  condemned,  even  from  a  stand- 
point of  the  workers. 

Mr.  W.  A.  S.  Hewins  in  his  "English  Trade  and  Fi- 
nance, chiefly  in  the  Seventeenth  Century"  makes  the 
following  strong  and,  to  those  who  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  generally  denouncing  the  factory  system,  inexplicable 
remarks :  "The  factory  system  gradually  gave  the  work- 
ers back  powers  which  had  been  in  abeyance  for  two 


62  THE    RISE    OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

centuries.  It  made  possible  new  manifestations  of  the 
spirit  of  association  which  had  been  well  nigh  quenched, 
and  in  spite  of  its  many  deplorable  features  it  must  be 
considered  an  upward  step  in  social  development." 

In  order  to  see  the  full  force  of  this  statement  a  com- 
parison must  be  made  between  the  factory  system  and  its 
immediate  predecessor,  the  domestic  system,  of  which 
some  slight  mention  has  already  been  made. 

Under  the  domestic  system,  the  industries  were  car- 
ried on  sometimes  in  small  manufactories  but,  for  the 
most  part,  in  cottages  and  dwelling  houses,  the  finished 
product  being  delivered  into  the  hands  of  a  middleman, 
who  in  turn  had  to  warehouse  it,  and  if  it  were  intended 
for  export,  hand  it  over  to  a  carrier,  who  took  it  by  the 
very  imperfect  means  of  transportation  then  in  use,  to  one 
or  other  of  the  ports  where  the  trade  was  controlled  by 
certain  privileged  merchants.  So  the  whole  progress  of 
the  product  from  its  raw  state  to  its  final  market  was 
marked  by  the  exactions  of  the  various  middlemen,  or  fac- 
tors, from  whose  predatory  enterprise  there  was  no  possi- 
bility of  escape. 

The  working  classes  were  the  abject  slaves  of  these 
factors.  It  is  true  that  they  worked  in  their  own  houses 
and  so  were  free  from  the  interference  of  the  overseer 
and  were  spared  the  humiliation  of  the  personal  indignity 
which  the  factory  overseers  were  able  to  inflict  upon  the 
factory  workers.  But  the  factor  held  their  life  completely 
in  his  power,  for  he  could  cut  off  their  source  of  livings. 
If  the  cottager  refused  to  accept  the  terms  of  the  factor, 
the  latter  could  simply  refuse  to  supply  him  with  the  raw 
material,  and  separation  from  the  raw  material  meant 
starvation  or,  at  all  events,  threw  the  workman  back 
upon  the  precarious  subsistence  which  his  garden  and 


THE  FACTORY   SYSTEM  63 

such  odd  jobs  as  he  could  get  from  day  to  day  afforded. 
Not  only  that,  but  when  the  work  was  done  the  mode  of 
payment  lay  altogether  in  the  discretion  of  the  factor, 
he  could  pay  in  kind  or  money,  and  force  his  payment, 
upon  the  worker  in  spits  of  the  Acts  of  Parliament  which 
were  intended  as  a  protection  of  the  laborer,  and  thus 
force  the  workman  who  had  completed  his  task  into  the 
acceptance  of  "truck."  And,  as  the  writer  above  quoted 
points  out,  the  factor  could  always  gratify  his  spite  and 
malevolence  by  having  the  weaver,  who  carried  on  cot- 
tage industry,  arrested  for  embezzling  cloth,  and  whipped 
or  put  in  the  stocks.  This  was  all  the  easier  when  we 
consider  that  the  magistrate  and  the  folks  in  authority 
were,  as  usual,  all  on  the  side  of  the  factor  and  that  no 
workman  had  much  chance  of  getting  anything  approach- 
ing justice. 

Again,  even  had  stringent  laws  against  the  formation 
of  trades  unions  not  been  in  force,  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  such  scattered  individuals  could  possibly  have  com- 
bined to  resist  the  attacks  of  the  factors,  as  there  was 
none  of  that  cohesion  and  association  which  are  the  nec- 
essary prerequisites  to  combined  action. 

When  these  drawbacks  to  the  domestic  system  are 
fully  perceived,  the  justice  of  the  quotation  above  made 
becomes  at  once  apparent.  The  factory  system  rendered 
possible  the  association  of  workers,  without  which  the  life 
of  the  laborer  is  only  a  prolonged  misery;  it  endowed 
him  with  all  the  strength  and  confidence  which  proceeds 
from  a  feeling  of  harmony  of  interest  with  his  fellows, 
and  thus  paved  the  way  for  that  intelligent  co-operation 
upon  which  the  future  of  the  working  class  so  largely 
depends. 

There  is   one   aspect,   however,   in  which  the  work 


64  •         THE  RISE   OF  THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

under  factory  regulations  appears  at  a  manifest  disadvan- 
tage as  compared  with  that  of  the  domestic  system,  that 
is  with  respect  to  its  monotony  in  the  factory.  There  is 
a  ceaseless  flow  of  the  same  motions,  a  constant  repetition 
of  the  same  functions  with  a  resultant  action  upon  the 
human  system  which  tends  not  to  happiness  but  rather 
to  a  debilitation  of  the  nervous  system.  The  domestic  sys- 
tem, on  the  other  hand,  with  its  cottage  industry,  gave 
a  greater  diversity  of  the  occupation  and  thus  tended  to 
the  greater  physical  well-being  of  the  individual.  The 
cultivation  of  the  garden  patch,  the  care  of  the  cow,  the 
little  extra  field-tasks  which  seed-time  and  harvest  de- 
manded, all  took  the  toilers  away  from  the  loom  or  wheel 
for  breathing  spells,  and  gave  them  a  taste  of  freedom  and 
change  which  the  workers  in  the  great  modern  factories 
amid  the  closeness  and  overcrowding  of  city  life  never 
enjoy.  We  must  also  take  into  account  the  loss  of  caste, 
which  the  worker  has  undergone  by  the  transformation 
of  himself,  as  an  individual,  with  his  individual  responsi- 
bilities, into  a  mere  part  of  a  machine,  for  that  is  all  that 
he  is  in  the  factory  system,  just  as  much  a  factor  in  the 
mechanism  of  production,  as  the  very  machine  by  whose 
movements  his  own  are  regulated.  He  loses  his  iden- 
tity in  the  common  mass  and  thus  part  of  his  accountabil- 
ity to  his  neighbors ;  his  respectability  is  extinguished  by 
his  environment,  and  he  undoubtedly  feels  the  effects  of 
the  nullifying  force  of  his  occupation  upon  his  ethical 
standards.  The  recognition  of  this  result  probably  tended, 
as  much  as  anything,  to  lower  the  occupation  of  factory 
"hands"  in  the  estimation  of  the  laborers  not  employed  in 
factories,  in  the  earlier  epochs  of  factory  history.  The 
same  fact,  no  doubt,  contributes  to  the  lowering  of  the 
standard  of  morality  in  city  life  in  comparison  with  that 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  65 

of  the  rural  districts,  and  this  consideration  must  also 
serve  to  offset  the  advantages  which  have  been  gained  by 
the  organization  of  the  factory  industry. 

The  decay  of  handicraft  has  also  attributed  very 
generally  to  the  introduction  of  the  factory  system,  but  it 
is  by  no  means  clear  that  this  is  the  case.  The  decay 
of  handicraft  is  primarily  chargeable  to  the  break-up  of 
the  gilds  which  undertook  to  keep  up  a  certain  standard, 
and  this  attitude  reacted  favorably  upon  the  general  pro- 
duct. On  the  other  hand,  it  does  not  appear  that  the 
standard  of  handicraft  was  any  higher  under  the  domestic 
than  under  our  present  system;  in  fact,  the  latter  days 
of  the  factory  system  have  been  marked  by  a  growth, 
rather  than  a  deterioration  in  handicraft. 

The  reason  of  this  is  not  very  far  to  seek.  The  opera- 
tion of  the  Factory  Acts  has  given  greater  leisure  to  the 
workers  and  much  of  this  leisure  has  been  spent  in  self- 
improvement.  Thus  singing  societies  and  scientific  and 
literary  societies  have  sprung  up  among  the  masses  of  the 
toilers,  and  the  Arts  and  Crafts  Gild  and  such  other 
organizations  have  had  a  considerable  influence  in  calling 
the  minds  of  the  workers  to  the  consideration  of  art  in 
handicraft. 

As  regards  the  actual  products  of  the  factories  them- 
selves but  little  can  be  said  in  their  favor.  They  are 
cheap  and  that  is  the  best,  and  at  the  same  time  the  worst 
that  can  be  said  of  them.  Cheap  products  are  as  a  rule 
the  products  of  cheap  men  and  it  will  have  to  be  admit- 
ted that  the  standard  of  production  of  the  factories  has 
tended  to  vulgarisation,  and  to  deterioration  of  the  pub- 
lic taste.  This  has  been  insisted  upon  so  strongly  and  so 
ably  by  men  like  William  Morris  that  there  is  no  need 
to  pursue  that  side  of  the  question  farther  at  present. 


66  THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

This  view  of  the  deteriorating  influence  of  the  modern 
system  upon  artistic  handiwork  has  recently  received 
corroboration  from  an  unexpected  quarter.  The  artist, 
the  critic  and  the  workingman  may  in  the  eyes  of  the 
money  classes  be  safely  ignored  and  their  opinions 
laughed  at,  but  when  the  Viceroy  of  India  takes  occasion 
to  expatiate  upon  the  same  theme,  it  becomes  evident  that 
the  constant  attacks  upon  the  artistic  deformity  of  factory 
production  are  at  last  beginning  to  produce  some  effect. 
Lord  Curzon  at  the  recent  Durbar  is  reported  to  have 
spoken  to  the  following  effect: 

"They  were  witnessing  in  India  one  aspect  of  the  pro- 
cess which  was  going  on  throughout  the  world,  which 
long  ago  had  extinguished  the  manual  industries  of  Great 
Britain  and  was  rapidly  extinguishing  those  of  China  and 
Japan.  Nothing  could  stop  it,  because  it  was  inevitable 
in  an  age  which  wanted  things  cheap  and  did  not  mind 
their  being  ugly;  which  cared  much  for  comfort  and 
little  for  beauty,"  and  after  admonishing  the  Indian 
princes  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  preserve  the  tradi- 
tional skill  of  the  Hindu  people  the  Viceroy  concluded 
despairingly,  "So  long  as  they  preferred  to  fill  their  places 
with  flaming  Brussels  carpet,  cheap  British  furniture, 
Italian  mosaics,  French  oleographs,  Austrian  lusters  and 
German  brocades,  there  was  not  much  hope." 

It  is  evident  that  the  factory  system  can  furnish  no 
solution  of  the  problems  involved  in  the  question  of  a 
revival  of  art-industry.  The  machine  can  never  make 
an  artistic  product,  and  a  revival  in  the  manufacture  of 
artistic  commodities  can  only  arise  in  response  to  a  wide- 
spread development  of  artistic  taste.  But,  under  a  proper 
regulation  of  the  machine  industry  the  hours  of  labor 
may  easily  be  reduced  so  as  to  furnish  sufficient  leisure 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  67 

to  the  artisan  class.  This  leisure  will,  in  turn,  lead  to  a 
demand  for  better  surroundings  and  hence,  probably,  to 
the  revival  in  some  degree  of  esthetic  taste. 

\Yhatever  may  be  the  results,  the  system  is  with  us, 
and,  as  far  as  can  be  at  present  seen,  is  destined  to  be 
long  lived,  for  unless  society  is  to  prove  false  to  its  own 
laws  of  evolution,  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  reason 
to  anticipate  any  simplification  of  the  process  of  manu- 
facture, but  rather  a  still  further  development  in  the 
direction  of  greater  intricacy,  with  still  greater  insistence 
on  the  social  and  less  on  the  merely  individual  factors. 

The  organized  co-operation  of  Man  and  Machine  is  the 
salient  feature  of  the  system.  One  single  moving  force 
animates  and  drives  a  number  of  different  machines,  and 
sets  in  motion  a  collection  of  various  agencies  each  of 
which  contributes  its  quota  toward  the  production  of  a 
definite  result.  In  obedience  to  this  force  and  the  amount 
of  the  machinery  thus  engendered,  the  human  beings 
co-operating  in  the  common  task  are  set  in  motion,  and 
man  and  the  machine  combine  their  movements  towards 
one  definite  end.  Each  part  of  each  machine  must  per- 
form its  function,  or  the  work  ceases ;  each  human  being 
must  sink  his  individuality  in  the  common  task  or  the 
operations  cannot  proceed,  and  the  creation  of  the  pro- 
duct is  interrupted.  Man  and  machine  are  merged  to- 
gether in  the  one  all-absorbing  task. 

The  factory  has  been  thus  defined: 

"Combined  co-operation  of  many  orders  of  work-peo- 
ple— adult  and  young — attending  with  assiduous  skill  a 
system  of  productive  machines  continuously  impelled  by  a 
central  power." 

Another  definition  of  the  system  runs  as  follows : 

"A  vast  automaton  composed  of  various  mechanical 


68  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

and  intellectual  organs  acting  in  uninterrupted  concert  for 
the  production  of  a  common  object,  all  of  them  being 
subordinated  to  a  self-regulated  force." 

Here,  it  is  evident,  we  get  the  perfection  of  human 
organization.  The  motive  force  is  single,  the  working 
force  is  completely  organized,  and  the  product  appears 
as  the  product  of  collective  labor,  free  from  the  dis- 
tinguishing marks  of  individual  effort. 

No  longer  can  the  workman  say  that  any  particular 
portion  of  the  result  is  his  own  handiwork;  his  contribu- 
tion is  swallowed  up  in  the  collective  effort;  the  result  is 
the  result  of  the  organization  which  levels  all  distinctions 
of  ability  and  physical  strength,  and  reduces  human  labor 
to  one  common  average. 

In  face  of  this  fact  the  complaint  made  by  employers 
that  trades  unions  interfere  with  the  right  of  individual 
ability  to  receive  its  due  reward  falls  to  the  ground. 
Under  a  disciplinary  method,  such  as  is  maintained  in 
a  modern  workshop  carried  on  under  the  factory  sys- 
tem, such  individual  ability  will  have  no  chance  to  dis- 
play itself,  and  any  attempt  to  revive  a  system  of  indi- 
vidual payment  of  wages  upon  the  basis  of  individual 
output  would  only  lead  to  a  lowering  of  wages  and  the 
tyranny  of  the  employer  over  the  individual  workman, 
precisely  the  state  of  things  against  which  the  trades 
unions  and  factory  legislation  have  worked  for  so  many 
years.  In  other  words,  the  factory  system  by  its  very 
form  of  organization  converts  production  from  a  matter 
of  individual  effort  to  a  matter  of  social  concern.  Thills 
the  unrestricted  authority  of  the  factory  owner  simply 
endows  him  with  the  power  to  use  a  social  function  for 
his  private  purposes  and  gives  him  the  advantages  which 
arise  from  social  effort  and  the  experience  of  the  race 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  69 

without  any  adequate  compensating  returns  to  society 
therefor. 

The  solution,  then,  of  tjje  factory  question  consists 
in  the  recognition  by  society  of  this  fact,  and  the  appli- 
cation of  it  to  the  system  itself.  This  of  necessity  in- 
volves a  series  of  attacks  upon  the  position  of  the  em- 
ployer and  converts  the  question  into  a  cause  of  conflict 
between  the  two  parties  interested.  The  employing  or 
capitalistic  class  naturally  aims  to  gain  as  large  an 
amount  of  profit  as  possible  even  at  the  expense  of  the 
well-being  of  the  workers  and  is  prepared,  as  it  has 
ever  been,  to  sacrifice  the  laboring  classes,  and  hence  the 
nation  itself  for  its  own  peculiar  class-interestis.  The 
laboring  class,  on  the  other  hand,  is  equally  anxious  to 
gain  as  fair  a  livelihood  as  possible  with  the  least  pos- 
sible expenditure  of  physical  energy.  And  as  national 
welfare  depends  primarily  upon  the  physical  well-being 
of  the  masses  the  cause  of  the  laborer  becomes  of  ne- 
cessity the  cause  of  the  nation,  and  thus  citizens  who  are 
patriotic  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term,  that  is,  careful 
for  the  real  interests  of  their  own  country,  naturally 
incline  to  the  side  of  the  laborer.  This  tendency  is 
offset,  however,  by  the  power  of  money,  the  corrupting 
influences  set  in  motion  by  those  who  are  able  to  offer 
immediate  personal  gain  to  those  who  will  take  their 
side,  by  the  propaganda  of  false  ideas  of  national  glory 
by  which  patriotic  sentiments  are  used  as  a  cloak  for 
the  basest  of  personal  interests,  and  by  actual  threats 
of  deprivation  of  work  and  consequently  of  even  bare 
subsistence. 

The  problem  is  somewhat  modified  by  the  better 
organization  of  industry  and  the  annihilation  of  numbers 
of  small  individual  producers.  On  the  other  hand,  a 


70  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

growing  consciousness  of  the  identity  of  the  interests 
of  the  laborers  renders  the  attack  upon  the  intrenched 
capitalists  more  effective.  Thus,  on  the  whole,  in  spite 
of  many  serious  drawbacks,  and  in  spite  of  the  much 
disputed,  but  still  obvious  fact  that  the  rate  of  wages 
by  no  means  keeps  pace,  in  proportion,  with  the  increase 
in  actual  production,  the  laborer  in  the  factories  has 
gained,  and  the  tendency  once  begun,  as  it  has  been 
already  begun,  cannot  well  be  seriously  interrupted.  The 
path  of  true  reform  of  the  factory  system  is  obvious 
enough.  The  trades  unions  should  be  able  to  maintain 
their  rate  of  wages  and  even  to  improve  upon  it,  and  if 
so  far  they  have  not  been  able  to  do  so,  it  is  a  reflection 
upon  their  methods,  which  should  cause  them  to  over- 
haul the  machinery  and  to  find  exactly  where  they  are 
wanting.  It  will  be  discovered,  as  a  result  of  such  ex- 
amination, that  they  have  neglected  the  weapon  which 
is  at  once  the  readiest  and  the  most  effective,  that  is, 
their  own  political  power. 

Continual  watch  must  be  kept  upon  the  employment 
of  children,  and  the  minimum  age  of  employment  con- 
stantly raised,  until  the  disgraceful  institution  of  child 
labor  is  completely  abolished. 

The  inspection  of  machinery  and  sanitary  arrange- 
ments should  be  thoroughly  carried  out,  and  more  and 
more  stringent  provisions  made  in  regard  to  these  mat- 
ters; for  with  our  present  improved  system  of  build- 
ing, there  is  no  reason  why  the  factory  should  not  be 
converted  into  a  convenient  and  healthy  place  of  labor. 

Many  other  suggestions  have  been  made  to  improve 
the  condition  of  factory  laborers,  most  of  which  are  so 
obvious  as  to  require  no  special  mention. 

It  will  be  seen  that  such  modification  in  the  factory 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM  71 

system  can  hardly  be  made  without  diminishing,  in  some 
degree,  at  least,  the  profits  of  employers,  and  that  con- 
sequently they  will  meet  with  bitter  opposition,  and  it 
will  be  further  seen  that  these  modifications  cannot  be 
successfully  carried  out  while  the  political  power  remain^ 
in  the  hands  of  the  present  possessing  classes.  The  first 
preliminary,  therefore,  to  reform  of  the  factory  system 
is  the  growth  in  political  power  of  the  laboring  classes. 
The  development  of  the  working  class  from  a  sub- 
ject to  a  dominant  class  involves  the  substitution  of  a 
higher  system  for  the  factory  system  of  to-day  and,  as 
far  as  appears  at  present,  such  substitution  can  only  be 
accomplished  by  means  of  the  actual  efforts  of  the  work- 
ing class  itself.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  factory  sys- 
tem may  be  rendered  as  effective  a  means  of  social  ad- 
vantage as  it  has  hitherto  been  of  mere  individual  profit ; 
and,  so  far,  this  is  the  only  method  of  industry  of  which 
that  can  be  truly  said. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

During  the  period  of  the  domestic  system  of  produc- 
tion in  Europe  occurred  the  first  European  coloniza- 
tion of  that  portion  of  an  American  continent  which 
has  since  become  the  greatest  industrial  power  in  the 
world — the  United  States.  The  English  settlements, 
begun  on  ihe  Atlantic  Coast,  had  progressed  until  by 
the  time  of  the  industrial  revolution  in  Britain  in  1760, 
they  had  about  four  millions  of  people.  The  defeat  of 
the  French  in  the  struggle  for  dominance  of  the  New 
World  left  these  colonists  free  to  work  out  their  'des- 
tiny in  a  country  of  almost  illimitable  extent.  They 
were  to  accomplish  their  national  growth,  to  unite, 
to  control  the  politics  of  an  even  greater  domain  than 
was  then  spread  out  before  them.  The  last  vestige  of 
the  former  European  control  was  to  disappear  in  the 
elimination  of  the  Spanish  influence  in  the  West. 
They  were  to  spread  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  ere  a 
century  and  a  half  had  passed  to  aspire  to  the  domin- 
ion of  the  entire  continent  and  to  have  already  fastened 
the  tentacles  of  their  capitalistic  class  upon  the  Orient. 

The  United  States  is  the  child  of  the  Industrial 
Revolution.  Jts  birth  is  almost  coincident  with  that 
of  the  steam-engine  and  the  factory  system.  It  is  a 
thoroughly  bourgeois  product  and  it  has  shouted  the 
gospel  of  the  bourgeoisie  and  proclaimed  the  virtue  and 

n 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     73 

vices  of  that  regime  more  loudly  than  any  other  people. 
It  has  proclaimed  itself  to  be  the  leader  of  human  lib- 
erty and  progress  by  virtue  of  a  revolution  made  in 
the  names  of  ideals  of  liberty.  In  reality  its  revolu- 
tion was  made  in  terms  of  money  and  trade.  It  was 
carried  through  with  the  most  pompous  announce- 
ments of  human  liberty  which  hardly  veiled  the  real 
designs  of  its  instigators.  It  denied  its  professed 
theories  at  its  very  inception  by  the  proclamation  of 
human  rights  and  the  acceptance  of  chattel  slavery. 
The  cynicism  of  that  first  treason  to  its  publicly  ad- 
vertised theories  has  persisted  in  its  people  until  the 
"mocking  devil"  in  their  blood  has  become  a  by  word 
among  the  nations. 

Its  inhabitants,  of  religious  stock,  and  filled  with 
the  calvinistic  interpretation  of  the  scriptures,  have 
produced  a  civilization  in  which  life  and  property  are 
more  insecure  than  in  any  other  portion  of  the  civilized 
world.  Its  declarations  of  individual  liberty  have  led 
to  the  institution  of  a  most  remarkable  system  of  social 
and  industrial  tyranny.  Time  has  laughed  at  its  proc- 
lamation of  the  abolition  of  classes  and  has  brought  it 
about  that  two  classes  in  the  community  eye  one  an- 
other with  vindictive  hatred  and  the  country  trembles 
upon  the  verge  of  the  most  colossal  labor  war.  Its 
original  inhabitants,  frugal  and  law  abiding,  would  not 
recognize  their  descendants  in  the  fierce,  keen  eyed, 
calculating  race  which  has  made  the  country  conspicu- 
ous for  wanton  waste  and  extravagance,  and  has  re- 
duced the  administration  of  law  to  a  matter  of  social 
and  political  influence. 

Within  a  century  and  a  quarter  the  vast  national 
domain,  which  seemed  inexhaustible,  has  been  taken 


74  THE  RISE  OF  THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

from  the  masses  of  the  people.  A  slum  proletariat 
has  been  created.  All  the  advantages  which  the  pos- 
session of  a  new  country,  free  from  feudal  traditions, 
gave  the  original  founders  of  the  republic  have  been 
lost.  A  purse-proud  oligarchy  without  any  social  ob- 
ligations has  come  into  existence.  It  has  destroyed  all 
the  guarantees  of  freedom  and  independence  which  the 
fathers  fondly  thought  secured  them  from  the  evil  lot 
of  the  European.  From  an  isolated,  petty-bourgeois, 
republic,  America  has  developed  into  a  great  modern 
state,  in  the  circle  of  high  finance,  in  the  grip  of  the 
greater  bourgeoisie,  under  the  heel  of  the  money 
power,  with  a  proletariat  as  unsettled  and  as  revolu- 
tionary as  any  in  Europe.  The  next  step  for  the  United 
States,  as  for  the  remaining  nations  in  the  modern  civ- 
ilization, is  the  social  revolution. 


The  British  colonists  who  constituted  the  first  really 
important  settlement  on  the  American  continent 
brought  with  them  the  methods  and  ideas  of  the  do- 
mestic system  of  industry.  The  economic  organization 
and  the  tool  of  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury were  theirs  by  right  of  inheritance.  Thus  the 
earlier  American  system  was  largely  a  facsimile  of 
that  of  the  British  Isles  prior  to  the  great  industrial 
revolution  of  1760.  The  agrarian  system  of  the  South 
was,  on  the  other  hand,  a  product  of  the  surviving 
English  feudalism.  The  great  planter  was  the  lord  of 
the  manor  and  ruled  somewhat  after  the  feudal  fash- 
ion. The  planter's  house  was  the  social  centre  as  well 
as  the  centre  of  political  influence.  The  fact  of  slave 
labor  and  the  cultivation  of  large  estates  under  a  sys- 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     75 

tern  of  slavery,  together  with  the  existence  of  numbers 
of  poor  whites,  who  were  not  of  the  same  class  as  the 
great  planters,  constituted  another  reason  for  the  al- 
most absolute  sway  of  the  Southern  landed  class.  In 
the  North  the  commercial  and  industrial  class,  which 
was  then  in  a  rudimentary  stage,  was  the  master. 
The  Northern  leaders  of  public  opinion  and  the  domi- 
nant class  in  church  and  state  were  therefore  essen- 
tially bourgeois.  Their  English  antecedents  had  been 
bourgeois.  This  fact  affected  the  estimation  in  which 
they  were  held  by  the  British  landholding  and  aristo- 
cratic classes.  These  latter  always  persisted  in  regard- 
ing the  North  as  inferior  and  nearly  one  hundred  years 
after  the  Revolutionary  War,  when  North  and  South 
were  engaged  in  mutual  srtife,  English  society  main- 
tained that  the  party  of  the  South  was  the  "gentle- 
manly party."  The  differences  in  occupation  and  in  the 
economic  milieu  of  the  two  classes,  moreover,  laid  the 
foundation  of  those  differences  which  were  to  culmi- 
nate, one  hundred  years  after  the  industrial  revolution 
in  England,  in  the  conflict  already  mentioned. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  therefore  the  forms 
of  industrial  activity  may  be  briefly  classed  as  agricul- 
tural, conducted  in  the  North  by  free  farmers,  and  in 
the  South  by  the  lords  of  the  negro  slaves.  There  was 
little  differentiation  in  occupation,  for  farming  consti- 
tuted the  staple  work,  just  as  under  the  domestic  sys- 
tem everywhere,  and  such  additional  trades  as  were 
carried  on,  for  the  most  part,  monopolized  the  time 
which  was  not  taken  up  with  husbandry.  Even  so, 
there  had  been  a  marked  industrial  progress  noticea;jJe 
in  the  colonies  prior  to  the  Revolution.  The  shipbuild- 
ing trade  had  developed  to  such  an  extent  that  the  ships 


76  THE   RISE    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

of  the  colonies  were  by  no  means  unfamiliar  objects 
on  the  high  seas  and  smuggling  was  a  recognized  oc- 
cupation. The  iron  industry,  which  was  still  in  its  ear- 
liest infancy,  had  yet  been  born,  and  there  was  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  industrial  system  which,  given 
modern  machinery,  was  destined  to  entirely  alter  the 
social  structure  of  the  community.  The  spinning 
wheel  and  the  hand  loom  had  come  over  with  the 
original  colonists  and  the  domestic  needs  were  sup- 
plied by  the  women  of  the  household.  Sheep  had  been 
early  introduced  and  the  woolen  trade  prospered. 
Cotton  goods  were  also  manufactured  and  there  was  a 
beginning  of  the  iron  manufacture.  In  fact,  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  colonial  period  there  had  been  such 
a  development  of  manufactures  under  the  domestic 
system  that  the  British  capitalists,  who  regarded  the 
colonies  as  a  field  for  exploitation,  had  passed  numer- 
ous acts  limiting  the  commerce  of  the  country  and  forbid- 
ding the  exportation  of  manufactured  articles. 

The  condition  of  the  people  was  much  the  same  as 
across  the  ocean,  except  that  the  squire  and  the  parson 
were  not  so  powerful,  so  that  it  must  have  seemed  a 
veritable  paradise  to  English  villagers  who  suffered 
under  that  double  tyranny.  But  the  same  narrow- 
mindedness  and  the  same  deference  to  local  authority 
prevailed.  The  life  of  the  workers  under  the  industrial 
system,  generally  termed  domestic,  has  been  described 
by  Engels  in  the  following  terms:  "So  the  workers 
vegetated  through  a  passably  comfortable  existence, 
leading  a  righteous  and  peaceful  life  in  all  piety  and 
probity."  The  same  description  will  apply  to  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Northern  colonies  in  the  period  pre- 
ceding the  Revolutionary  War,  particularly  with  re- 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     77 

spect  to  piety,  for  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  de- 
voted to  some  of  the  many  religious  expressions  in 
church  life  of  the  Puritanism  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, which  are  generally  classified  under  the  name  of 
Protestant  Dissent.  The  probity  was  not,  however,  so 
conspicuous,  for  the  merchant  class  was  devoted  to 
smuggling,  and,  like  their  English  progenitors  of  Bris- 
tol, did  a  lively  trade  in  the  carrying  of  slaves,  although 
this  trade  had  been  given  practically  as  a  monopoly  to 
court  favorites. 

The  relation  of  master  and  servant  prevailed.  The 
proletariat,  as  we  know  it  to-day,  did  not  exist,  and 
the  subordinate  position  of  those  who  worked  for 
wages  was  accentuated  by  the  survival  in  the  colonies 
of  the  old  system  by  which  rates  of  wages  were  fixed, 
and  a  long  and  servile  apprenticeship  was  necessary 
to  the  practice  of  any  one  of  the  independent  handi- 
crafts. The  tyranny  of  the  system  was  to  a  certain 
extent  mitigated  by  the  fact  that  there  was  always  the 
wild  back  country  to  which  the  actively  discontented 
and  the  stronger  could  always  betake  themselves  and 
establish  a  habitation,  after  fierce  conflict  with  the 
dangers  of  the  wilderness  and  the  aboriginal  tribes. 

Such  was  the  aspect  of  industrial  life  in  the  colonies 
when  the  dawn  of  the  great  industrial  revolution  broke 
in  England.  Henceforth  the  quiet  progress  of  the  colo- 
nies was  to  be  rudely  disturbed.  War  was  to  break  out ; 
the  form  of  government  was  to  be  changed.  The  free 
farmers  and  the  followers  of  domestic  industry  were 
to  be  chased  the  length  of  a  continent  for  a  hundred 
years  and  finally  to  be  run  to  the  ground  and  destroyed. 
Their  descendants  were  to  be  the  slaves  and  handmaids 
of  the  greater  industry  which  had  not  appeared  but 


78  THE   RISE   OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

which  was  slowly  growing  in  the  womb  of  the  do- 
mestic system  and  only  needed  the  fullness  of  time  and 
the  quickening  touch  of  the  industrial  revolution  to 
bring  it  to  life. 

The  historic  fiction  that  the  Revolutionary  War 
was  caused  by  the  imposition  of  the  Stamp  Duty  and 
by  the  particular  form  of  taxation  adopted  by  the 
British  government  has  long  since  been  discarded  by 
those  who  have  carefully  examined  the  causes  of  the 
Revolution.  These  were  admirable  points  on  which 
to  make  the  fight  but  the  fundamental  causes  were 
deeper  and  involved  the  necessities  of  the  bourgeois 
class  in  the  colonies.  The  growing  industries  of  the 
country  were  limited  and  cramped  by  the  legislative 
enactments  of  the  British  government.  Act  after  act 
was  passed  forbidding  exportation  of  certain  manufac- 
tured goods  and  aimed  at  the  preservation  of  the  carry- 
ing trade  for  British  shippers.  Laws  against  the  trade 
of  smuggling  were  passed  and  partially  enforced.  But 
these  grievances,  harrowing  as  they  afterwards  be- 
came in  the  speeches  and  pamphlets  of  the  revolution- 
ary fathers,  were  but  lightly  denounced,  until  the 
growth  of  the  industrial  revolution  in  England  pointed 
out  to  the  patriotic  lovers  of  liberty  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic  a  readier  means  of  making  money  and  acquir- 
ing power.  For  this,  independence  was~necessary.  The 
commercial  and  industrial  classes,  the  speculators  in 
land  values,  the  shippers  and  the  incipient  manufac- 
turers could  not  hope  to  achieve  the  position  which 
they  craved  under  the  control  of  parliament  and  the 
domination  of  the  court,  the  landed  aristocracy,  and  the 
growing  merchant  class  of  Great  Britain.  Besides  these 
main  causes  there  were  unquestionably  a  number  of 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     79 

subsidiary  reasons  which  had  great  effect  upon  the 
minds  of  the  young  in  particular.  Among  them  may 
be  noted  the  lack  of  political  and  social  opportunity 
which  the  perpetuation  of  the  colonial  system  shut 
out  from  the  lawyer  and  ambitious  young  politi- 
cian of  the  United  States.  Certain  social  factors,  such 
as  irritation  with  the  superior  airs  of  the  British  offi- 
cials and  the  arrogant  tone  of  London  society  towards 
the  colonies,  undoubtedly  played  their  part  and  ranged 
the  ambitions  and  intellects  of  the  young  men  against 
the  British  government  and  in  support  of  the  manu- 
facturers and  merchants,  of  whom  the  latter  were  at 
that  time  by  far  the  more  important. 

The  Revolutionary  War  was  essentially  a  class 
war;  history,  as  taught  in  the  public  schools,  notwith- 
standing. There  never  was  any  great  enthusiasm  for 
it  among  the  rank  and  file  of  the  working  people.  It 
is  very  doubtful  whether  the  mass  of  the  people  were 
really  in  active  favor  of  the  war  and,  according  to  the 
historians,  it  is  pretty  evident  that  at  no  time  did  an 
actual  majority  favor  independence. 

The  close  of  the  war,  however,  found  the  new 
American  bourgeoisie  in  full  possession  of  the  field  and 
ready  to  develop  their  power.  They  had  not  suffered 
particularly  in  the  conflict,  the  great  burden  of  which 
had  been  borne  by  the  common  people.  In  fact  the 
commercial  classes  had  actually  benefited,  for  the  gov- 
ernment gave  them  security  in  the  collection  of  the 
debts  which  the  other  part  of  the  community  had  been 
obliged  to  incur  during  the  progress  of  the  war.  A 
government  was  needed  to  carry  out  the  demands  of 
this  class  and  the  form  of  Confederation  which  pre- 
vailed at  the  close  of  the  war  was  too  unwieldy  and  of 


80  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

too  little  value  to  be  really  effectual.  In  place  of  the 
loose  agglomeration  of  communities,  which  existed 
under  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  a  federal  consti- 
tution was  necessary  to  the  interests  of  the  budding 
capitalism.  It  has  been  said  that  the  delegates  to  the 
constitutional  convention  were  brought  together  not 
for  the  purpose  of  devising  some  ideal  form  of  govern- 
ment but  to  make  such  a  "practical  plan  as  would  meet 
the  business  needs  of  the  people."  The  upshot  of  the 
constitutional  convention  was  that  a  document  was 
framed,  which,  in  the  words  of  one  historian,  McMaster, 
had  the  result  that  "all  who  possessed  estates,  who  were 
engaged  in  traffic  or  held  any  of  the  final  settlement 
and  depreciation  certificates  felt  safe."  The  victory 
had  been  gained  and  the  final  result  was  complete  and 
unmistakable  triumph  for  the  merchants  and  the  finan- 
ciers, such  as  then  existed.  The  manufacturers  were 
to  have  the  advantage  of  a  tariff  law  and  a  compromise 
was  arrived  at  with  the  Southern  planter  element 
which  permitted  the  continuance  of  the  slave  trade 
until  1808. 

So  the  commercial  and  industrial  masters  were 
firmly  planted  in  the  saddle,  but  the  circumstances 
were  not  yet  propitious  for  the  creation  of  a  proleta- 
riat of  the  modern  type,  though  but  one  year  was  to 
elapse  before  the  factory  system  had  been  established 
on  the  soil  of  the  United  States.  Political  independence 
did  not  by  any  means  at  first  spell  industrial  inde- 
pendence. The  new  machinery,  with  which  the  in- 
ventive genius  of  the  pioneer  inventors  in  Great  Britain 
had  endowed  the  capitalistic  class  in  that  country,  was 
not  procurable  in  the  United  States  and  the  country 
was  in  a  state  of  industrial  vassalage.  The  new  bour- 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     81 

geoisie  looked  with  hungry  and  covetous  eyes  across 
the  Atlantic,  where  their  brother  bourgeois  were  rap- 
idly breaking  up  the  old  fashioned  form  of  industry, 
and  were  driving  the  domestic  industry  out  of  exist- 
ence. The  English  bourgeois  were  well  aware  of  the 
advantage  which  the  possession  of  these  new  tools  of 
production  conferred  upon  them,  and  they  were  un- 
willing to  give  the  secret  to  others,  so  that  they  had 
passed  the  most  stringent  acts  of  parliament  against 
the  exportation  of  the  new  machinery.  The  Amer- 
icans tried  by  every  means  in  their  power  to  obtain 
possession  of  this  essential  secret.  They  advertised  for 
men  used  to  the  English  machinery  and  the  advertise- 
ment caught  the  eye  of  one,  Samuel  Slater,  who  knew 
the  new  tools  by  heart,  and  who  crossed  the  Atlantic 
to  place  his  knowledge  at  the  service  of  the  United 
States  capitalists.  In  1790  he  erected  at  Pawtucket  the 
first  factory  in  the  country  and  endowed  America  with 
the  modern  system.  So  rapidly  did  the  new  system  of 
production  progress  that  by  1814  the  American  manu- 
facturer had  actually  improved  upon  the  model  of  his 
English  predecessor  and  a  factory  was  erected  at  Wal- 
tham,  Mass.,  in  which  all  the  processes  from  the  raw 
to  the  finished  article  were  carried  on.  By  1815  the 
textile  industry  of  the  United  States  had  passed  into 
the  factory  system,  and  the  old  domestic  system,  as 
the  dominant  mode  of  manufacture,  was  practically 
extinct.  Then  began  the  employment  of  women  in  the 
factory.  There  was  precisely  the  same  objection  to 
the  taking  of  work  in  the  factory  on  th'«  part  of  the 
American  women  as  there  had  been  in  England,  and 
extra  inducements  in  the  shape  of  pay  had  to  be  of- 
fered before  the  women  and  children  of  the  commu- 


THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

nity  were  handed  over  to  the  factory  owners.  But 
the  machine  owners  had  the  economic  power  and  the 
history  of  the  women  and  children  of  the  community 
henceforward  may  be  briefly  summarized  as  a  constant 
surrender  to  the  industrial  lords.  The  early  days  of  the 
factory  system  of  the  United  States  do  not,  however, 
seem  to  have  been  disgraced  by  the  cruelties  of  the 
English  system.  This  is  not  to  be  explained  on  the 
grounds  of  any  greater  humanity  on  the  part  of  the 
employers  on  this  side  of  the  water,  but  was  due  largely 
to  the  sparse  population  which  made  the  obtaining  of 
employes  difficult,  except  under  fairly  good  conditions, 
and  to  the  existence  of  the  back  country,  which  always 
afforded  a  desperate  remedy  in  the  event  of  life  growing 
unbearable  in  the  settled  districts.  In  1793  the  cotton 
gin,  invented  by  Eli  Whitney,  gave  a  great  impetus 
to  the  cotton  trade  and,  while  it  increased  the  power 
of  the  South  to  such  an  extent  that  it  made  it  the 
dominant  factor  in  the  community  for  many  years,  it 
stimulated  the  textile  industry,  for,  without  this  inven- 
tion, it  would  have  been  impossible  to  have  supplied 
the  machines  with  the  material  which  they  required. 
Everything  conspired  to  develop  the  machine  industry. 
Even  the  European  wars,  with  the  consequent  em- 
bargo, necessitated  a  development  of  manufacture  and 
the  war  of  1812,  which  was  followed  by  the  imposition 
of  a  tariff  for  the  payment  of  the  debt  incurred  by  that 
conflict,  encouraged  the  factory  system. 

In  1825  the  Erie  Canal  was  completed  and  changed 
the  course  of  immigration,  and  steamers  began  to  ply 
on  the  Mississippi  a  little  earlier,  facts  which  had  a 
considerable  influence  in  giving  the  Northeast  part  of 
the  country  an  advantage  over  the  Southern,  which, 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     83 

later  on,  was  to  prove  very  important  in  the  determi- 
nation of  the  contest  between  the  two  sections  of  the 
country. 

The  progress  of  the  country  in  industry  and  manu- 
facture was  henceforth  constant  and  there  is  no  need 
to  pursue  it  further  here.    The  iron  and  steel  industry 
developed,  and  in  1840  the  discovery  that  bituminous 
and  anthracite  coal  could  be  employed  in  the  blast  fur- 
naces instead  of  charcoal  gave  a  great  impetus  to  this 
branch  of  industry.  Still  even  in  1840  the  development 
of  organized  industry  had  made  comparatively  little 
way,  for  Harriet  Martineau,  in  her  list  of  the  occupa- 
tions followed  by  women  in  America,  enumerates  only 
teaching,  needlework,  keeping  boarders,  working  in 
cotton   mills,  type  setting  and  domestic  service.     A 
list  of  the  present  occupations  followed  by  women,  in 
connection  with  the  greater  capitalism  and  its  ramifi- 
cations would  show  how  much  greater  progress  has 
been   made   by  the   industrial   rulers   since   the   Civil 
War  than  before  it.    The  explanation  is  to  be  found,  of 
course,  in  the  existence  of  the  vacant  lands  and  the 
frontier,  and  affords  proof  that  the  proletarian  has  been 
unwillingly  forced  into  this  industrial  system  and  that 
he  has  only  succumbed  to  his  present  wage  slavery 
under  the  compulsion  of  the  hardest  economic  tyranny. 
With  the  entry  of  the  country  into  the  modern  sys- 
tem there  came  also  the  unavoidable  penalty  in  the 
shape  of  the  commercial  crisis.    Great  Britain  had  just 
had  her  first  taste  of  the  trouble  that  was  to  be  perma- 
nently attached  to  the  new  industrialism  and  which 
was  at  intervals  to  cause  havoc  and  waste,  as  though 
by  war.    In  1815,  at  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars, 
the  first  crisis  caught  her.    Owing  to  the  backward  de- 


84  THE   RISE  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PROLETARIAN 

velopment  of  international  trade  at  that  time  she  had 
the  trouble  all  to  herself,  but,  in  1819,  the  United 
States  felt  the  pinch  owing  to  over-speculation  in  the 
new  factories.  Six  years  after  another  crisis  made  it- 
self felt  in  England  but  passed  this  country  by,  it  being 
then  in  the  high  tide  of  the  boom  which  was  to  break 
disastrously  twelve  years  afterwards  and  was  to  in- 
volve both  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  in  the 
worst  panic  and  period  of  financial  depression  which 
had  occurred  up  to  that  time.  Concerning  the  relations 
of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  in  the  period 
'  preceding  the  crisis  of  1837,  Mr.  H.  M.  Hyndman  says, 
in  "Commercial  Crises  of  the  Nineteenth  Century": 

"Now,  however,  became  apparent  the  close  con- 
nection of  the  English  commercial  and  financial  mar- 
kets with  those  of  tha  United  States,  which,  then  and 
ever  since,  has  rendered  it  inevitable  that  an  industrial 
or  financial  crisis  in  the  one  country  should  more  or 
less  seriously  affect  the  other.  At  this  time,  1836-1839, 
the  United  States  were  still,  economically  speaking, 
a  dependency  of  Great  Britain,  though  more  than  sixty 
years  had  passed  since  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence. North  America,  in  fact,  stood  to  England  in 
much  the  same  relation  that  the  Australian  Colonies  do 
now.  The  Great  Republic  supplied  the  Lancashire  mills 
almost  exclusively  with  cotton,  as  Australia  now  sup- 
plies Bradford,  Huddersfield  and  oth'er  cities  with 
wool.  In  like  manner  also  the  United  States,  both  as 
a  Federal  Government  and  as  independent  States 
looked  to  this  country  for  loans  to  develop  their  im- 
measurable resources." 

It  was  an  era  of  wild  cat  banking  and  when  the 
fevered  period  of  credit  passed  and  coin  was  called  for 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     85 

al  the  banks  in  the  country  suspended  specie  payment 
and  more  than  fifteen  hundred  banks  failed. 

Another  trade  crisis  which  occurred  in  England  in 
1847  also  made  itself  felt  in  this  country,  but  in  1857 
the  United  States  had  so  far  progressed  on  the  road  to 
industrial  independence  that  we  were  able  to  prove  our 
worth  as  a  modern,  industrial  and  progressive  nation 
by  inaugurating  a  crisis  of  our  own,  concerning  which 
Mr.  Hyndman,  in  the  work  above  mentioned,  says : 
"America  had  the  honor  of  commencing  the  worst 
crisis  of  the  century."  This  author  says:  "A  report 
published  at  the  commencement  of  1857  stated  that  the 
year  1856  had  given  results  of  which  the  past  afforded 
no  example.  Enormous  advance  had  been  made  in 
the  cultivation  of  new  territories,  the  produce  of  har- 
vests, the  extension  of  factories,  the  exploitation  of 
mines,  the  exports  and  imports,  the  carrying  trade, 
shipbuilding,  the  railway  returns,  the  spread  and  im- 
provement of  cities"  had  developed  at  an  incredible 
rate.  The  banks  were  lending  beyond  reason  and  the 
stocks  which  had  been  bought  speculatively  in  the  ex- 
pectation of  another  rise  filled  the  warehouses.  Then 
came  the  withdrawal  of  deposits,  and  the  hoarding  of 
gold  and  silver,  with  the  result  that  the  crash  followed 
and  fourteen  great  railways  suspended  payment. 

The  object  of  Hamilton  in  pushing  the  federal  sys^ 
tern  to  success  was  undoubtedly  "the  creation  of  a 
class  of  manufacturers  running  through  all  the  states 
but  dependent  for  prosperity  upon  the  federal  govern- 
ment and  its  tariff."  Such  being  the  case  conflict  could 
not  be  avoided  with  those  classes  which  were  not  en- 
gaged in  manufacturing  and  were  not  directly  or  indi- 
rectly dependent  upon  the  manufacturing  interests  and, 


86  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

as  a  matter  of  fact,  these  interests  were  by  no  means 
predominant,  even  in  the  North  Atlantic  States,  at 
first.  The  commercial  class  was  the  chief  economic 
class,  even  in  these  'districts,  and  the  members  of  the 
commercial  class,  together  with  the  Southern  planters 
and  the  frontiersmen,  who  were  taking  up  the  new 
lands  and  founding  new  communities,  were  by  no  means 
always  in  accord  with  the  rising  industrial  class. 
Hence  the  whole  international  political  life  of  the  coun- 
try was  involved  in  a  tariff  fight,  and  the  question  of 
the  kind  of  tariff,  or  no  tariff  at  all,  was  the  burning 
political  question  for  many  years.  The  tariff  of  1816, 
which  was  imposed  to  pay  the  cost  of  the  war  with 
England  in  1812,  was  largely  in  favor  of  the  manufac- 
turing class,  for  it  imposed  a  duty  of  twenty-five  per 
cent  ad  valorem  on  cotton  and  woolen  goods  and  spe- 
cific duties  on  iron.  In  the  iron  industry  Great  Britain 
had  gained  already  considerable  advantage  from  the 
fact  that  in  that  country  the  use  of  coke  had  been  sub- 
stituted for  charcoal,  with  a  resultant  cheapening  of 
the  product.  It  was  not  until  about  1840  that  the 
United  States  by  the  use  of  anthracite  coal,  placed  the 
iron  industry  on  a  satisfactory  footing,  and  removed 
the  seat  of  that  industry  from  the  forest  localities  to 
the  regions  where  iron  and  coal  were  found  in  close 
conjunction.  An  attempt  to  employ  the  tariff  for 
barefaced  class  purposes  found  its  expression  in  what 
was  known  as  the  "American  System."  This  has  been 
thus  described :  "The  tariffs  of  duties  on  imports  were 
to  be  carried  as  high  as  revenue  results  would  approve; 
within  this  limit,  the  duties  were  to  be  defined  for  pur- 
poses of  protection,  and  the  superabundant  revenues 
were  to  be  expended  for  the  improvement  of  roads, 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     87 

rivers  and  harbors  and  for  every  enterprise  that  would 
tend  to  aid  the  people  in  their  efforts  to  subdue  the 

continent Western  farmers  were  to  have 

manufacturing  towns  at  their  doors,  as  markets  for 
the  surplus  which  had  hitherto  been  rotting  on  their 
farms;  competition  among  manufacturers  was  to  keep 
down  prices;  migration  to  all  the  new  advantages  of 
the  west  was  to  be  made  easy  at  national  expense." 
(See  U.  S.  Hist,  and  Const,  by  Alexander  Johnston). 
Needless  to  say  that  this  sort  of  protection  was  much 
opposed  by  the  South  which  saw  in  it  merely  a  scheme 
to  increase  the  power  of  the  Northern  commercialists 
and  manufacturers.  The  dissatisfaction  of  that  district 
still  further  increased  when  the  tariffs  of  1824  and  1828 
showed  an  upward  tendency  in  the  imposition  of  du- 
ties. A  reduction  of  the  tariff  under  Andrew  Jackson 
was  effected  in  1833  and,  although  there  was  an  at- 
tempt made  to  return  to  a  protective  tariff  in  1842,  the 
frontier  and  the  South  had  the  better  of  the  tariff  matter 
until  the  Civil  War.  The  interests  of  these  sections 
were  obviously  in  favor  of  a  low  tariff.  At  one  period 
when  the  Southern  planters  feared  an  invasion  of  their 
practical  monopoly  of  the  supply  of  raw  cotton  and  the 
possible  loss  of  a  portion  of  the  British  market  they 
were  content  to  allow  such  tariff  as  would  enable  the 
North  to  remain  a  steady  customer  for  raw  materials 
for  their  mills  and  factories.  When  this  danger  was 
passed,  however,  they  reverted  to  their  old  antagonism 
to  the  tariff,  since  it  was  to  their  interest  to  maintain 
their  slaves  as  cheaply  as  possible  and,  as  the  dealers 
in  a  practical  monopoly,  they  were  not  benefited  by  the 
imposition  of  duties. 

The  westward  tide  of  American  migration  also  had 


88      '     THE  RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

a  profound  effect  upon  the  politics  of  the  country.  The 
opening  of  the  great  waterways  increased  the  facilities 
of  transport  to  such  an  extent  that  the  240,000  sq. 
miles  of  inhabited  country  in  1790  had  expanded  into 
633,000  sq.  miles  in  1830  with  an  average  population 
of  20.3  to  the  sq.  mile.  However,  even  this  migra- 
tion westward  was  increased  tremendously  by  the  in- 
troduction of  the  steam  railroad.  In  1829  the  first 
steam  engines  were  imported  from  England  and  the 
speed  with  which  railroad  construction  followed  has 
had  no  parallel  among  other  peoples.  In  1830  twenty- 
three  miles  of  railroad  were  built  which  had  increased 
to  1,098  in  1835  and  to  almost  two  thousand  in  1840. 
In  1856  there  were  in  the  United  States  24,195  miles 
of  railroad  as  contrasted  with  8,297  miles  in  Great 
Britain,  and  these  American  roads  had  been  construct- 
ed at  little  more  than  one-fifth  of  the  cost  per  mile  of 
those  of  the  latter  country.  The  effects  of  this  rail- 
road construction  upon  the  growth  of  the  country  have 
been  thus  described  by  the  author  cited  above : 

"If  the  steamboat  had  aided  western  development 
the  railroad  made  it  a  freshet.  Cities  and  states  grew 
as  if  the  oxygen  of  their  surroundings  had  been  sud- 
denly increased.  The  steamboat  influenced  the  rail- 
way, and  the  railway  gave  the  steamboat  new  powers. 
Vacant  places  in  the  states  east  of  the  Mississippi 
were  filling  up;  the  long  lines  of  emigrant  wagons 
gave  way  to  the  new  and  better  methods  of  transport ; 
and  new  grades  of  land  were  made  accessible.  Chi- 
cago was  but  a  frontier  fort  in  1832,  within  half  a 
dozen  years  it  was  a  flourishing  town  with  eight  steam- 
ers connecting  it  with  Buffalo,  and  dawning  ideas  of 
its  future  development  of  railway  connections.  The 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     89 

maps  change  from  decade  to  decade  as  mapmakers 
hasten  to  insert  new  cities  which  have  sprung  up.  Two 
new  states,  Arkansas  and  Michigan,  were  admitted 
(1836  and  1837).  The  population  of  Ohio  leaps  from 
900,000  to  1,500,000  and  that  of  Michigan  from  30,000 
to  21.2,000  and  that  of  the  country  from  13,000,000  to 
17,000,000  between  1830  and  1840." 

The  great  mass  of  this  migration  was  in  the  years 
just  mentioned,  composed  of  people  of  American  na- 
tivity. The  European  immigration  was  not  important 
until  a  later  period.  The  greatest  number  of  Euro- 
pean immigrants  in  any  one  year  prior  to  1847,  was 
one  hundred  thousand  in  1842,  but  this  fell  again  to 
less  than  fifty  thousand  in  the  following  year  and  did 
not  rise  until  1847,  when  it  reached  250,000.  This  new 
European  immigration  was  composed  of  the  very 
flower  of  the  working  class  of  the  Northern  European 
countries.  The  immigrants  were  largely  radical  in 
their  tendencies,  for  the  failure  of  the  Chartist  move- 
ment in  Great  Britain  and  of  the  Republican  disturb- 
ances on  the  Continent  had  sent  to  this  Republic  men 
imbued  with  radical  and  revolutionary  opinions  who 
sought  in  the  great  Republic  the  political  liberty  which 
had  been  denied  them  in  their  own  lands.  American 
politics  were  not  long  in  feeling  the  different  attitude 
of  the  new  electorate.  The  American  immigrants  into 
the  West  had  come  either  from  slave  states  or  from 
states  bordering  upon  them  and  their  attitude  towards 
the  slavery  question  was  by  no  means  markedly  hos- 
tile. As  pioneers  and  largely  debtors  of  the  Northern 
commercialists,  their  sympathies  had  been  against  fed- 
eralism and  they  had  supported  the  anti-industrial 
party,  at  least  to  a  considerable  extent.  This  new  im- 


90  THE  RISE  OF  THE   AMERICAN   PROLETARIAN 

migration,  however,  was  composed  for  by  far  the 
greatest  part  of  men  who  were  violently  opposed  to 
slavery,  as  an  institution,  and  who  had  no  sentimental 
considerations  for  the  South.  They  came  in  with 
their  savings,  and  the  land  burst  into  wealth  under 
the  touch  of  their  fructifying  labors.  They  pushed 
forward  the  construction  of  the  railroads,  they  broke 
the  prairie  and  produced  incredible  quantities  of  food 
products,  so  that  the  country  became  a  great  source  of 
supply  for  the  millions  of  Europe.  When  the  Crimean 
War  broke  out,  the  United  States  sold  enormous 
quantities  of  wheat  to  the  British,  and  as  the  victory 
of  the  Free  Trade  Party  in  England  had  paralyzed 
the  wheat  growing  industry  of  that  country,  America 
was  relied  upon  more  and  more  to  furnish  the  neces- 
sary food  supplies.  This  brought  the  capitalism  of  the 
country  more  and  more  into  connection  with  the  capi- 
talism of  Europe  and  made  the  United  States  part  of 
the  great  world  financial  system.  It  became  subject 
to  the  same  fluctuations  of  trade  as  the  lands  with 
which  it  traded  and,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1857  itself 
precipitated  a  crisis  which  had  profound  effects  upon 
the  condition  of  trade  in  Europe. 

Thus,  at  first,  slowly,  but  more  rapidly  as  the  eco- 
nomic forces  came  into  play  with  ever  increasing  in- 
tensity, this  country,  which  had  begun  its  existence  as 
a  scanty  agricultural  settlement  on  the  edge  of  a  wil- 
derness, was  being  drawn  into  the  circle  of  the  great 
capitalistic  powers.  Like  its  own  pioneers  who  were 
debtors  to  the  small  American  capitalists  of  the  At- 
lantic coast,  the  new  American  capitalism  was  heavily 
in  debt  to  European  and,  particularly,  to  English  capi- 
talists. The  sums  advanced  for  the  building  up  of  the 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     91 

country  had  been  for  the  most  part  borrowed  abroad, 
and  this  also  was  a  fact  of  no  slight  importance  to  the 
development  of  the  United  States. 

The  proletariat  of  the  United  States  had  not  yet 
really  come  into  existence  although,  with  the  growth 
of  trade,  this  new  apparition  also  began  to  show  itself. 
\Yhen  the  development  of  industry  reaches  a  certain 
point  the  proletariat  shows  itself,  as  a  baby,  weak  and 
rather  incapable,  it  is  true,  and  yet  as  a  baby  with  a 
temper,  who  screams  and  fights  and  is  generally 
whipped  into  something  like  temporary  subordination. 
There  were  a  number  of  strikes  even  quite  early  in 
American  history,  such  as  that  of  some  sailors  in  1803, 
shoemakers  in  1805,  tailors  in  1806,  hatters  in  1819, 
and  others  of  a  similar  sort.  The  strikes  were,  how- 
ever, comparatively  insignificant  affairs,  and  were 
much  closer  in  resemblance  to  the  journeymen  strikes 
of  the  old  system  of  industry  than  to  the  great  pro- 
letarian movements  of  the  greater  industry  of  the  pres- 
ent day.  As  the  factory  system  developed  and  indus- 
try became  more  thoroughly  organized,  the  labor 
movement  took  on  more  definite  shape,  and  trades 
unions  began  to  be  formed.  The  advent  of  Robert 
Owen  in  1824  had  no  inconsiderable  part  in  awaken- 
ing the  working  class  agitation.  In  1825  a  labor  paper, 
called  "The  Workmen's  Advocate,"  was  published  and 
was  followed  by  others  in  the  principal  cities.  In  the 
early  thirties  there  were  sufficient  organized  workmen 
to  constitute  themselves  into  the  General  Trades 
Union  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  in  1832  the  mer- 
chants and  shipowners  of  Boston  formed  an  organiza- 
tion to  oppose  the  unions.  These  Boston  employers 
declared  against  "the  pernicious  and  demoralizing  ten- 


92  THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

dency  of  these  combinations  and  the  unreasonableness 
of  the  attempt,  in  particular,  where  mechanics  are  held 
in  so  high  estimation  and  their  skill  in  labor  so  lib- 
erally rewarded."  They  agreed  to  refuse  to  employ 
any  journeyman  belonging  to  a  union  and  to  boycott 
any  employer  who  did  not  live  up  to  this  agreement. 
In  1835  a  number  of  strikers  were  tried  for  conspiracy, 
and  one  of  the  great  achievements  of  this  early  labor 
agitation  was  the  abolition  of  the  legislation  which 
had  rendered  possible  these  conspiracy  proceedings. 
Hours  of  labor,  which  were  inordinately  long,  being 
twelve,  thirteen  and  even  fourteen  in  the  textile 
industry,  were  shortened  and  numerous  other  reforms 
were  instituted  by  the  first  labor  movement.  Its  effects 
have  thus  been  summed  up  by  A.  M.  Simons  in  his 
pamphlet  entitled  "Class  Struggles  in  America": 

"It  is  to  these  working  class  rebels  that  we  owe  to  a 
larger  degree  than  to  any  other  cause  not  only  our 
public  school  system,  but  abolition  of  imprisonment 
for  debt,  the  mechanics'  lien  law,  freedom  of  associa- 
tion, universal  suffrage,  improvement  in  prison  admin- 
istration, direct  election  of  presidential  electors,  and 
in  fact  nearly  everything  of  a  democratic  character  in 
our  present  social  and  political  institutions.  Yet  so  far 
as  I  know  no  historian  has  even  given  them  the  least 
credit  for  securing  these  measures.  On  the  contrary 
every  effort  is  made  to  make  it  appear  that  these  privi- 
leges were  handed  down  as  gracious  gifts  by  a  benevo- 
lent bourgeoisie. 

"For  the  working  class  directly,  they  succeeded  in 
shortening  hours  and  improving  conditions  in  many 
directions.  They  even  brought  sufficient  pressure  to 
bear  upon  the  national  government  to  compel  the  en- 


EARLY  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     93 

actment  of  a  ten-hour  law  and  the  abolition  of  the  old 
legislation  against  trades  unions  which  had  made  labor 
organizations  conspiracies." 

With  these  achievements  the  early  labor  movement 
in  the  United  States  sinks  into  obscurity.  The  free 
lands  did  for  the  American  labor  movement  very  much 
what  they  had  done  for  the  English  Chartist  move- 
ment. They  afforded  a  refuge  for  those  discontented 
spirits  who  found  conditions  intolerable  and  who  would 
have  constituted  the  active  elements  of  revolution.  As 
long  as  any  man  with  sufficient  force  could  go  out  into 
the  wilderness  and  there  by  his  own  efforts  make  at 
least  a  rough  and  independent  living  the  chances  for 
really  effective  labor  organizations  were  comparatively 
slight.  The  discovery  of  gold  in  California  no  doubt 
deprived  the  Eastern  working  class  of  bold  and  daring 
leaders,  as  the  subsequent  history  of  labor  in  that 
State  shows.  But,  more  than  all,  the  minds  of  men 
were  occupied  with  the  preliminary  stages  of  the  gi- 
gantic conflict  between  North  and  South  which  was 
so  soon  to  culminate  in  civil  war. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD 

The  American  Civil  War  has  been  too  often  regarded 
as  purely  a  war  of  sentiment,  one  in  which  the  moral 
question  was  supreme,  and  which  was  brought  about  by 
the  persistence  of  the  South  in  the  maintenance  of  a  sys- 
tem abhorrent  to  the  human  conscience.  The  North 
has  regarded  itself,  and  has  come  to  be  generally  con- 
sidered, as  the  champion  of  human  rights,  the  Federal 
soldiers,  as  the  heroes  of  a  moral  campaign,  and  the 
Proclamation  of  Lincoln  as  a  new  charter  of  human  lib- 
erties, enunciated  solely  in  the  interests  of  a  down-trod- 
den humanity  and  thus,  as  a  document  whose  signifi- 
cance is  for  the  most  part  purely  ethical. 

As  a  mattter  of  fact,  there  are  few  wars  in  which 
the  economic  motive  is  more  easily  discernible,  in  which 
material  considerations  stand  out  more  clearly,  and  of 
which  the  results  rest  more  solidly  upon  economic 
necessities. 

This  does  not  imply  that  moral  enthusiasm  was  lack- 
ing, or  that  thousands  of  young  men  did  not  go  to  the 
front  inspired  with  the  most  pure  and  holy  ideals  re- 
specting their  work ;  such  a  conclusion  would  in  face 
of  the  obvious  facts  be  simply  absurd.  It  does  mean, 
however,  that  beneath  the  glamor  thrown  over  the  strife 
by  the  pamphlets  of  the  abolitionists,  and  the  perfervid 


94 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  95 

enthusiasm  of  moral  reformers  and  pulpit  orators,  there 
were  certain  hard,  invincible,  economic  antagonisms, 
which  had  to  be  determined  by  the  victory  of  one  or  other 
of  the  opposing  parties.  It  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  old  struggle  between  the  landholding  and  the  com- 
mercial classes  in  a  new  form,  and  with  the  complete 
victory  of  the  latter,  the  last  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
the  industrial  progress  of  the  United  States  were  swept 
aside,  and  the  free  course  of  economic  and  industrial 
development  was  assured  over  the  whole  of  the  vast 
new  domain. 

The  insincerity  of  the  eighteenth  century  agitation 
for  equality  can  be  easily  discerned  from  the  fact  that 
the  United  States,  the  first  country  to  incorporate  the 
new  ideas  in  a  constitution,  at  the  same  time  maintained 
intact  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  gave  it  constitu- 
tional recognition.  "Class-privileges  were  cursed,  race- 
privileges  blessed.''  The  bourgeoisie  had  based  its  revo- 
lution upon  the  declaration  of  liberty  and  equality  for 
the  human  race;  the  rights  for  which  they  demanded 
recognition  were  elementary  human  rights,  "Rights  of 
Alan,"  an  expression  to  which  the  victors  in  the  struggle 
against  British  reaction  had  pledged  their  open  allegiance 
in  the  words  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

It  could  not  be  expected  that  such  a  contradiction 
as  that  between  this  grandiloquent  declaration  of  liberty, 
and  the  perpetuation  of  slavery  would  be  likely  to  escape 
the  notice  of  the  morally  acute,  so  that  from  the  begin- 
ning there  were  those  who  detected  the  absurdity  of  the 
continued  existence  of  slavery  among  a  free  people,  and 
who  consequently  set  on  foot  an  agitation  against  the 
institution.  The  high  ground  taken  by  these  men,  sub- 
sequently termed  abolitionists,  is  the  moral  justification 


96  THE   RISE    OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

of  the  anti-slavery  movement  and  the  Proclamation, 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact  these  men  had  but  little  to  do 
with  the  actual  result.  They  were  flouted,  ill-treated 
socially  and  actually  persecuted,  even  in  the  Northern 
States.  Their  moral  propaganda  was  made  to  serve  the 
purpose  of  those  whose  interests  were  far  from  ethical, 
but  were  in  fact  very  material.  Ethical  ends  were, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  subserved  by  the  change,  but  not^ 
it  will  be  observed,  as  the  consequence  of  a  moral  cam- 
paign. 

Still  there  was  even  in  the  infant  days  of  the  Re- 
public, a  feeling  among  observant  people  that  the  em- 
ployment of  slaves  was  not  economically  sound.  Thus 
Franklin  in  his  "Peopling  of  Countries"  maintained  that 
slave  labor  was  relatively  more  expensive  than  free, 
a  condition  which  would  appeal  much  more  strongly  to 
the  average  business  man  or  manufacturer  than  all  the 
rhetoric  of  a  Phillips  or  a  Garrison.  There  was  much 
general  discussion  of  a  similar  nature  at  that  time,  upon 
the  question  of  the  comparative  economic  value  of  the 
two  classes  of  labor,  but  this  did  not  concern  itself  with 
moral  or  philosophical  views  respecting  the  slavery,  wage 
or  chattel,  of  human  beings  in  general. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  our  present  task  to  ex- 
amine the  various  arguments  put  forth  during  the  course 
of  this  discussion,  but  it  may  be  said  that  if  computa- 
tion is  made  of  the  actual  amount  of  capital  invested 
in  slaves,  in  the  care  and  housing  of  slaves,  and  the 
slight  returns  of  slave  labor  as  compared  with  those  of 
modern  free  labor,  where  the  wage-worker  toils  under 
the  strain  of  the  competitive  system,  it  will  be  readily 
seen  that  there  was  no  lack  of  economic  argument  to 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  97 

serve  as  a  material  backing  for  the  ethical  doctrines  of 
the  moral  campaigners. 

There  was  moreover  a  natural  division  between  the 
northern  and  the  southern  sections  of  the  country,  which 
originated  in  very  ancient  and  fundamental  caste  dis- 
tinctions. There  was  little  in  common  between  the  two 
systems  of  slavery,  wage  and  chattel,  save  that  both  were 
exploiting  systems,  both  extorting  values  from  those 
who  actually  produced  them,  and  there  was  still  less 
sympathy  between  the  human  representatives  of  the 
two  systems.  On  the  one  hand,  we  had  the  supercili- 
ousness, the  arrogance,  the  sensitiveness  and  at  the  same 
time  the  domineering  insolence  which  have  always  typi- 
fied the  agrarian,  the  aristocrat;  on  the  other  hand,  the 
keenness,  the  skill  in  solving  material  and,  particularly, 
economic  problems,  and  the  frugality  of  the  commer- 
cialist,  all  his  obviously  vulgar  economic  virtues  with  his 
hardly  more  lovable  vices. 

It  could  not  be  well  avoided  that  people  of  such  in- 
compatible natures  living  in  states  of  society  so  pro- 
foundly diverse,  would,  in  the  course  of  time,  run  coun- 
ter to  each  other,  for  no  single  country  could  continue 
to  exist  thus  divided  against  itself. 

John  Quincy  Adams  is  perhaps  the  most  prominent 
statesman  from  whom  we  can  gather  the  feeling  of  the 
leading  classes  of  the  North  during  the  early  part  of  the 
century.  This  cold,  calculating  man,  could  not  be  said, 
even  by  his  most  devoted  adherents,  to  have  been  im- 
pressed with  any  great  moral  wrongs  in  slave-holding 
itself,  as  an  institution,  and  in  fact  his  attitude  towards 
the  abstract  question  of  chattel  slavery  is  fully  shown 
by  his  refusal  to  co-operate  with  Canning  in  any  steps 
looking  to  the  putting  down  of  the  slave-trade.  At  the 


98  THE   RISE    OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

same  time  he  agitated  persistently  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  United  States,  and  in  1835  presented  pe- 
titions for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia. His  efforts  were  evidently  purely  political,  as 
distinct  from  humanitarian,  and  he  is  thus  an  excellent 
exponent  of  the  ideas  held  by  the  dominant  classes  of 
the  North.  His  views  of  the  means  by  which  slavery 
was  to  be  abolished  are  particularly  worthy  of  note, 
for  the  question  was  ultimately  solved  in  accordance  with 
his  plan,  as  an  act  of  war.  Thus  as  early  as  1836  he 
said  "From  the  instant  that  your  slave-holding  states 
become  the  theatre  of  war,  civil,  servile,  or  foreign,  from 
that  instant  the  war-powers  of  the  Constitution  extend 
to  interference  with  the  institution  of  slavery,  in  every 
way  in  which  if  can  be  interfered  with,  from  a  claim 
of  indemnity  for  slaves  taken  or  destroyed,  to  a  cession 
of  the  State  burdened  with  slavery  to  a  foreign  power." 
And  on  April  14,  1842,  he  said  again:  "Not  only  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  but  the  Commander  of 
the  Army  has  power  to  order  the  universal  emancipation 
of  the  slaves." 

Besides  the  social  and  class  differences  which  placed 
a  gulf  between  the  dominant  economic  classes  of  the  two 
sections,  the  continued  political  ascendancy  of  the  South 
in  national  politics,  up  to  a  period  immediately  preced- 
ing the  war  itself,  was  a  source  of  annoyance  to  the 
northern  manufacturers.  It  interfered  with  their  de- 
signs of  building  up  great  productive  industries.  The 
staple  productions  of  the  South  were  raw  materials, 
the  products  of  slave-labor  applied  to  the  soil.  Protection 
which  was  deemed,  and,  in  fact,  was,  absolutely  essential 
to  the  maintenance  of  these  infant  industries,  in  face  of 
the  tremendous  output  of  the  British  factories,  and  the 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  99 

fierce  commercial  zeal  shown  by  the  British  trader,  was 
thus  always  more  or  less  abhorrent  to  the  Southern 
planter.  Thus  the  North  always  inveighed  against  the 
apathy  of  the  South,  and  the  presence  of  a  succession 
of  well-bred  and  dignified  statesmen,  with  family  tra- 
ditions and  a  culture  born  of  generations  of  transmitted 
power,  inspired  the  self-made  men,  the  pushing,  eager 
merchants  and  the  restless  manufacturers  with  ill-con- 
cealed dislike  and  contempt.  No  one  can  study  the  poli- 
tics of  the  period  antecedent  to  the  Civil  War  without 
being  impressed  with  this  incessant  struggle,  depending 
as  it  did  upon  no  particular  ethical  difference,  but  evi- 
denced, for  the  most  part,  by  a  natural  and  mutual  dis- 
like based  upon  the  most  obvious  and  baldest  material 
considerations. 

It  will  be  observed  that  even  in  the  North  there  was 
much  sympathy  for  the  Southern  slave-holders  on  the 
part  of  the  wealthy  merchants  and  the  professional 
classes.  When  the  war  actually  broke  out  the  same 
feeling  was  felt  by  the  aristocratic  and  upper  middle  as 
well  as  the  professional  classes  of  Great  Britain.  This 
sympathy  was  in  itself  a  survival  of  feudal  times.  The 
Southern  was  considered  as  "the  gentlemanly  party," 
and,  hence,  the  privileged  classes,  whether  abroad  or  at 
home,  for  the  most  part,  united  in  its  support' and  gave 
it  social,  if  not  political,  prestige.  In  fact,  as  is  well- 
known,  but  for  the  energetic  interference  of  those  classes 
in  England  which  were  economically  in  the  same  position 
as  the  anti-Southern  party  in  the  North  the  Confederacy 
would  have  received  recognition,  if  not  active  support 
The  clerical  element,  too,  which  has  always  shown  that 
its  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  by  its  continual  support 


Itttt.        THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

of  reactionary  and  incompetent  political  causes,  was  not 
backward  in  its  approval  of  the  South  and  slavery. 

By  a  sort  of  irony  the  growth  of  the  machine  industry 
which  was  destined  ultimately  to  overthrow  slavery,  and 
by  the  destruction  of  its  economic  utility  to  destroy  the 
class  which  found  in  it  its  basis  and  reason  for  existence, 
first  stimulated  the  institution.  It  forced  upon  it  a 
much  more  extensive  and  rapid  growth  than  it  would 
otherwise  have  attained  and  endowed  the  planters  with 
great  wealth  at  the  same  time  as  it  contributed  to  their 
political  ascendency.  Had  it  not  been  for  this,  centuries 
might  have  passed  before  the  real  evils  of  slavery  would 
have  been  discovered  by  those  ardent  philanthropists  who 
could  view  unmoved  the  horrors  of  modern  commercial- 
ism, and  not  feel  even  a  transient  pang  of  pity  for  the 
victims  of  the  mine  and  the  loom. 

These  economic  and  social  reasons  were  in  themselves 
sufficient  to  have  caused  a  conflict  between  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  two  opposing  systems.  An  armed  truce 
was  the  most  permanent  and  satisfactory  solution  which 
coud  have  been  hoped  for  under  the  circumstances,  and 
the  persistent  agitation  of  the  abolitionist  would  easily 
have  broken  that.  Mutual  suspicion  and  hatred  were  en- 
gendered between  the  two  sections  of  the  country,  and 
these  feelings  linger  even  till  to-day  among  those  who 
cherish  bitter  memories  of  the  war-time.  But  the  grow- 
ing power  of  the  North  and  the  fast-increasing  pre- 
ponderance of  the  manufacturer  in  national  affairs  might 
in  the  course  of  time  have  impressed  itself  even  upon 
the  mind  of  the  unregenerate  South  and  means  might  have 
been  discovered  which  would  have  prevented  the  actual 
outbreak  of  hostilities  and  the  forcible  spoliation  of  the 
owners  of  slaves.  But  the  fact  that  the  great  western 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  101 

domain  was  still  unoccupied,  raised  a  political  question 
which  rendered  necessary  a  settlement  by  the  sword. 

The  struggle  between  North  and  South  resolved  it- 
self into  a  struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  vacant 
lands.  If  the  South  could  succeed  in  establishing  itself 
upon  the  new  soil,  its  political  supremacy  was,  for  the 
time  being,  assured.  If  it  could  not  do  so  it  was  neces- 
sarily and  unavoidably  doomed.  To  the  North,  however, 
the  occupation  of  uncultivated  lands  by  the  South, 
meant  not  only  political  inferiority  for  several  genera- 
tions at  least,  with  an  ever-hostile  Senate.  It  implied, 
in  addition,  a  non-development  of  internal  trade,  for 
there  is  but  slight  demand  for  commodities  in  a  system 
which  involves  the  creation  of  great  holdings  cultivated 
by  slaves,  devoted  almost  exclusively  to  agricultural 
pursuits,  self-contained  and  self-supporting  in  an  ob- 
solete sort  of  patriarchal  way,  consuming  few  commodi- 
ties, and  offering  no  incentive  to  the  development  of 
agriculture  and  the  modern  system.  Wherever  the  free 
farmer  went  was  the  possibility  of  what  is  known  as 
progress,  of  a  continually  increasing  demand  for  com- 
modities; where  the  slave-owner  established  himself 
there  was  stagnation,  caused  on  the  one  hand  by  the 
existence  of  a  servile  population  whose  wants  were  very 
elementary,  and  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  existence  of 
a  luxurious  and  arrogant  landed  aristocracy,  whose  very 
existence  depended  upon  the  maintenance  of  things  as 
they  were. 

But  the  South  was  particularly  in  need  of  new  ter- 
ritory. The  system  of  cultivation  was  unscientific  and 
careless  in  the  extreme;  such  as  might  be  expected  at 
the  hands  of  a  mass  of  alien  slaves  who  had  no  personal 
interest  in  results.  It  was  managed  by  a  body  of  land 


102        THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

owners,  secure  in  possession  and  eager  to  extort  from 
the  soil  all  the  produce  which  their  crude  methods  of 
culture  were  able  to  cause  it  to  yield.  Under  the  cir- 
cumstances, it  is  evident  that  actual  economic  necessities, 
as  well  as  political  exigencies,  required  the  South  to  en- 
deavor to  push  its  territories  into  new  lands  and  to  intro- 
duce its  system  of  latifundia  to  the  as  yet  untouched 
soil  of  the  West. 

But  in  carrying  out  this  policy  the  South  was  con- 
fronted not  only  by  the  implacable  hostility  of  the  North- 
ern manufacturer,  but  by  its  own  incapacity  and  the 
weakness  of  its  system.  The  great  estates,  the  distin- 
guishing mark  of  the  system  of  slavery,  stood  like  little 
islands  in  the  midst  of  a  colored  population,  which,  though 
ignorant,  had  all  the  natural  yearnings  for  a  condition 
of  relative  freedom.  The  poor  whites,  the  plebeians,  were 
despised  as  not  belonging  to  the  aristocratic  privileged 
class,  and  being  different  in  education  and  knowledge 
of  the  world,  were  only  effective  as  warriors,  who,  as 
results  showed,  fought  excellently  in  a  retainer-like  way 
for  their  feudal  superiors. 

The  great  wave  of  immigration  which  poured  into  the 
United  States  from  Europe  during  the  forties  and  fifties, 
and  which  included  some  of  the  very  best  and  most 
eager  blood  of  the  northern  nations  passed  by  the  sleep- 
ing and  fettered  South,  rolled  wave  after  wave  to  the 
West,  occupying  the  ground  upon  the  possession  of  which 
the  sole  hopes  of  slavery  depended,  and  fresh  and  enthu- 
siastic from  their  struggles  for  liberty  in  the  Old  World, 
helped  to  swell  the  cry  for  freedom  in  the  New. 

In  spite  of  all  its  pride  and  caste  and  exclusive- 
ness,  its  undoubted  bravery,  and  its  unwearying  political 
struggle,  it  must  have  been  easy  to  see,  comparatively 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  103 

early  in  the  fight,  that  the  South  was  actually  doomed, 
not  on  the  moral  but  on  economic  grounds,  not  because 
slavery  was  wicked,  but  because  the  economic  fact  was 
against  it. 

And  so  matters  proceeded.  The  contest  in  the  mean- 
time became  more  and  more  intense  until  recrimination, 
abuse,  and  even  personal  encounters  in  the  National 
Capitol  marked  the  growth  of  passion  and  the  final  sepa- 
ration of  the  contending  groups  into  irreconcilable  par- 
ties. Then  it  was  that  the  ethical  question  became  a 
means  of  agitation,  a  goad  to  stir  the  masses  to  action 
by  the  same  formula  which  has  been  employed  from 
time  immemorial — the  appeal  to  patriotism  and  to  reli- 
gious sentiment.  The  abolitionist  was  no  longer  re- 
garded as  merely  a  crazy  fellow,  he  became,  quite  un- 
consciously to  himself,  a  useful  propagandist,  an  im- 
ps ssioned  machine  for  the  proclamation  of  the  gospel 
of  the  interests  of  the  northern  manufacturer.  The 
threats  of  coming  conflict  drew  opponents  of  the  South 
gradually  into  one  homgeneous  party.  The  abolitionist 
by  degrees  developed  into  a  useful  politician  and  to- 
gether with  those  who  were  more  obviously  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  tendencies  and  ambitions  of  the  North- 
ern manufacturers,  and  the  great  trading  interests 
formed  a  compact  and  well-organized  party  which,  by 
the  election  of  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency,  showed  its  hold 
upon  the  country  and  the  inevitability  of  Southern  de- 
feat. 

The  election  of  Lincoln  signified  the  triumph  of  the 
manufacturers,  and  hence  of  the  modern  progressive 
state ;  the  defeat  of  agrarianism  and  the  victory  of  com- 
mercialism. Henceforward  mere  sectionalism  would  be 
less  and  less  a  political  influence,  and  the  small  producer 


104         THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

woul  gradually  discover  that  his  path  to  success  was 
seriously  impeded  or  altogether  cut  off.  State  rights 
would  come  to  lose  their  significance.  A  new  society 
would  be  formed  in  which  new  antitheses  would  show 
themselves.  In  short  the  contest  between  agrarian  and 
commercialist  which  lay  at  the  root  of  the  Revolution  in 
Europe  and  to  a  large  extent  the  Revolution  in  this 
country  was  about  to  be  completely  determined  on  this 
continent.  Just  as  the  American  bourgeoisie  by  virtue 
of  local  advantages  had  been  enabled  to  win  a  more  de- 
cisive victory  over  the  representatives  of  the  feudal  sys- 
tem, and  reaction  then  had  been  the  fortune  of  the  Euro- 
pean bourgeoisie,  so  by  virtue  of  his  victory  in  the  Civil 
War,  the  American  greater  capitalist  was  to  have  a 
wider  power  and  a  less  circumscribed  field  of  operations 
than  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of  those  of  his  kind  in  Europe. 
With  the  actual  fighting  there  is  no  need  of  our 
troubling  ourselves.  The  story  of  the  campaigns  and  the 
engagements,  the  fictitious  glory  and  the  real  sordidness 
may  all  be  found  for  the  looking.  It  may  be  stated 
generally,  however,  that  if  the  war  had  an  economic 
origin,  its  termination  was  in  accordance  with  the  domi- 
nant economic  tendency.  The  industrial  resources  of 
the  North,  its  wealth  and  its  population  gave  that  sec- 
tion from  the  very  start  an  advantage  which  the  chivalry 
and  loyalty  of  the  forces  of  the  Southern  Confederacy 
found  it  impossible  to  offset.  The  fight  which  the  South- 
erners did  maintain,  however,  was  a  remarkable  testi- 
mony, not  so  much  to  the  personal  gallantry  of  the  sol- 
diers, for  personal  bravery  is  so  universally  the  posses- 
sion of  all  nations  that  discrimination  in  that  particular 
is  worse  than  futile,  but  rather  to  the  homogeneity  of 
the  system  which  was  abolished  by  the  results  of  the 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  105 

war.  Loyalty  to  state  rights,  the  sanction  of  the  South- 
ern action,  meant  in  a  larger  degree  than  is  usually  sup- 
posed loyalty  to  local  magnates,  for  the  old  relations  of 
baron  and  retainer  had  necessarily  been  perpetuated  to 
some  extent  in  a  country  where  land  constituted  the  chief 
source  of  wealth,  and  claim  to  social  distinction  rested 
primarily  upon  the  possession  of  broad  acres  and  do- 
minion over  the  bodies  of  men. 

As  compared  with  a  modern  commercial  community 
where  the  mutual  relations  of  men  with  one  another  are, 
for  the  most  part,  money  relations,  the  older  system  pos- 
sesses certain  advantages,  of  which  the  purely  senti- 
mental are  not  the  least.  Hence,  the  South  maintained 
the  unequal  conflict  with  a  persistent  energy  which  has 
won  unstinted  admiration  and  when  it  succumbed  it  did 
so  merely  in  the  face  of  material  resources  and  an  in- 
vincible economic  power  against  which  it  was  impossible 
for  it  any  longer  to  contend.  The  close  of  the  war  saw 
the  southern  system  completely  overcome  for  it  had  spent 
itself  in  the  struggle,  had  used  up  all  its  material,  and, 
having  no  means  of  obtaining  more,  was  forced  to  capitu- 
late. 

As  regards  the  working  classes  in  the  Civil  War, 
there  is  no  question  as  to  the  side  which  received  their 
sympathy  and  support.  In  the  South  which  was,  as  has 
been  pointed  out,  a  feudal  community,  the  vassals  fol- 
lowed their  lords  to  the  field.  Such  loyalty  is  universal 
in  that  form  of  society.  In  the  North  however  the  mas- 
ses of  the  working  people,  who  had  no  economic  interests 
to  subserve  and  looked  at  the  question  from  a  merely 
ethical  or  political  standpoint,  were  enthusiastically  and 
unanimously  Federal  in  their  sympathies. 

Even  outside  the  country  the  same  feeling  pervaded 


106         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

the  working  classes  of  the  continent  and  in  England. 
In  Lancashire,  which  suffered  more  acutely  than  any 
other  place  outside  the  United  States,  owing  to  the  short- 
age of  the  cotton  supply,  the  working-class  sentiment 
was  enthusiastic  against  the  slavery  party.  The  English 
working  men  sent  a  message  to  President  Lincoln  con- 
gratulating him  upon  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
to  which  he  replied  "Under  the  circumstances  I  cannot 
but  regard  your  decisive  utterances  upon  the  question 
as  an  instance  of  sublime  Christian  heroism  which  has 
not  been  surpassed  in  any  age  or  country."  There  was 
no  doubt  in  the  minds  of  the  European  democracy,  that 
is,  the  European  working  class,  as  to  the  rights  of  the 
matter,  and  indeed  we  find  more  than  one  conspicuous 
officer  in  the  service  of  the  North  afterwards  taking  a 
prominent  part  in  radical  politics  in  Europe. 

With  regard  to  the  progress  of  the  laboring  class  in 
the  United  States,  the  war  put  an  end  to  the  labor  agi- 
tation for  all  the  efforts  of  the  strongest  minds  were  de- 
voted to  one  end,  the  termination  of  the  struggle  at  the 
earliest  possible  time.  But  the  agitation  for  shorter 
hours  did  not  altogether  cease  and  the  formation  of 
unions  continued.  Thus  in  1861  the  Car  Drivers  of 
New  York  formed  what  they  called  a  benevolent  asso- 
ciation, and  in  the  next  year  the  Boston  United  Laborers' 
Society  came  into  existence,  as  well  as  a  much  stronger 
and  more  important  body,  the  Garment  Cutters'  Asso- 
ciation of  New  York.  Strikes  broke  out  in  1863,  notably 
among  the  ships'  carpenters  who  demanded  a  daily  wage 
of  three  dollars.  In  1861  the  Cigar  Makers'  Interna- 
tional Union  was  organized.  In  1865  the  Journeymen 
Tailors  formed  a  national  association,  as  well  as  the 
Bricklayers  and  Masons.  But  in  1866,  when  the  war 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  107 

was  at  an  end,  the  spirit  of  trades  unionism  appeared  to 
take  possession  of  the  country,  and  a  vehement  agita- 
tion in  favor  of  an  eight  hour  law  sprang  up.  The  war 
had  therefore  merely  acted  as  a  slight  interruption  of 
the  skirmishing  which  was  to  last  for  many  years  spread- 
ing into  an  ever  widening  area  and  affecting  larger  and 
larger  bodies  of  men,  the  unceasing  and  irreconcilable 
conflict  between  the  capitalists  and  the  workingclass. 

The  opportunities  for  making  money  which  were 
presented  by  the  war  were  not  neglected  by  the  specu- 
lators and  those  who  were  more  interested  in  growing 
rich  than  in  any  political  or  social  question.  While  the 
soldiers  died  like  flies  at  the  front,  the  trader  in  the  rear 
piled  up  immense  fortunes  by  the  swindling  of  the  gov- 
ernment and  in  shady  contracts.  It  was  an  era  of  stu- 
pendous fraud,  such  fraud  as  had  up  to  then  never  been 
known,  for  never  before  had  the  opportunities  been 
so  great.  It  is  unnecessary  to  specify  particular  in- 
stances, they  will  occur  to  any  one  who  is  familiar  with 
the  ways  of  army  contractors.  The  stock  exchange  was 
manipulated  in  the  most  shameless  and  unpatriotic  man- 
ner, gambling  in  gold  was  a  favorite  sport  of  the  specu- 
lators, and  behind  the  march  of  armies  there  could  have 
been  distinguished  the  orgies  of  those  who  were  playing 
fast  and  loose  with  the  destinies  of  the  country  in  the 
shameless  race  for  wealth.  After  the  war  was  over 
the  politician  entered  blindly  upon  the  game  of  robbery, 
and  prostituted  the  victory  to  the  lowest  of  party  ends. 
If  there  was  any  doubt  about  the  reasons  of  the  war  from 
the  northern  side  before  the  war  began  there  need  not 
have  been  any  when  it  had  terminated.  The  victors, 
the  only  real  victors  in  the  struggle,  were  by  no  means 
long  in  claiming  their  own.  It  was  the  triumph  of  the 


108        THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

greater  capitalism,  and  the  greatest  capitalism  meant  to 
have  all  the  glory  and  what  is  more  to  the  point,  the 
booty.  The  war  tariff  which  had  at  first  been  imposed 
for  revenue  purposes  was  continued  after  peace  was 
finally  settled  for  the  distinct  purpose  of  building  up  the 
greater  industry.  The  war  party  became  the  party  of 
the  tariff,  and  has  ever  since  remained  so.  No  appeal 
was  too  low.  The  most  inflammatory  speeches  were 
made  even  by  responsible  statesmen,  and  international 
hatred  was  sedulously  cultivated  to  the  end  that  the 
tariff  might  be  kept  up.  Even  the  war  itself  was  ex- 
ploited for  many  years  until  the  story  became  stale  by 
the  repetition  and  a  generation  which  had  grown  up 
since  its  battles  were  fought  refused  to  be  carried  any 
further  by  the  old  slogans. 

It  remains  to  note  two  or  three  important  steps  in  the 
development  of  industry  which  marked  this  period  and 
pointed  the  way  to  greater  achievements  and  a  still 
further  broadening  of  commerce  and  manufacture  than 
had  been  reached  as  yet.  In  1860  the  petroleum  oil 
business  was  started,  and  within  one  year  two  thousand 
oil  wells  were  sunk  in  Pennsylvania  alone,  and  it  was 
established  as  an  oil  state.  In  1861,  on  October  25th, 
the  Pacific  Telegraph  Line  between  St.  Louis  and  San 
Francisco  was  completed.  In  March,  1865,  the  first 
zinc  manufactured  in  the  United  States  was  made  at 
Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania,  in  1866,  the  Atlantic  Cable 
was  laid,  and  in  1867  Alaska  was  purchased  from  Russia. 

Five  years  of  war  had  done  more  to  advance  the 
manufacturing  interests  of  the  country  than  many  years 
of  peace.  The  land  was  never  again  to  be  the  same. 
Starting  out  as  a  farming  community  with  an  admixture 
of  small  traders  and  manufacturers  with  a  firm  belief 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  PERIOD  109 

in  the  ability  of  the  lowest  to  rise  to  the  highest  posi- 
tions in  the  State,  with  no  great  social  distinctions  and  with 
an  equality  as  regards  the  distribution  of  wealth,  such 
as  had  perhaps  never  been  seen  in  the  history  of  the  race 
since  the  days  of  tribal  communism,  it  had  undergone 
a  revolution  compared  with  which  the  mere  abolition  of 
the  slave  was  a  trivial  matter.  Henceforward  it  was  to 
be  an  industrial  community,  an  industrial  community 
which  organized  its  industry  on  a  large  scale.  The 
differences  in  material  wealth  were  to  become  so  great 
as  to  be  unbridgable.  The  small  manufacturer  was  to 
have  but  little  opportunity  of  ever  becoming  his  own 
master.  Great  combinations  were  to  become  the  rule, 
and  the  law  which  had  formerly  been  interpreted  in 
terms  of  the  small  bourgeois  society  was  to  be  wrested 
from  its  original  sense  so  as  to  suit  the  new  community, 
and  a  revolution  effected  by  a  few  decisions  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  was  to  mark  the  change.  The  Civil  War 
was  not  only  a  war  for  the  unity  of  the  country,  it  was 
a  revolution,  a  social  and  economic  revolution  as  regards 
its  effects,  it  was  the  1848  of  America. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREATER  CAPITALISM 

The  Southern  States  had  succumbed  and  the  ques- 
tion of  chattel  slavery  had  been  for  ever  laid  to  rest. 
Upon  the  ruins  of  the  destroyed  feudalism,  the  new 
victors  were  to  erect  a  new  industrialism,  more  terri- 
bly cruel,  and  not  less  a  slavery  than  that  which  had 
been  displaced.  The  bourgeois  class,  with  its  wonted 
hypocrisy,  was  to  enfranchise  the  negro  by  force  of 
arms,  and  afterwards  to  watch  his  disfranchisement 
with  approval,  when  his  vote  was  more  likely  to  be  a 
menace  than  a  protection. 

In  place  of  the  black  slave  the  new  industrialist  was 
to  substitute  the  white  child,  and  the  cry  of  agony 
from  the  flogged  white  free  child  was  to  take  the  place 
of  the  whimper  of  the  beaten  negro.  Great  factories 
were  to  arise  throughout  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas 
where  the  worst  features  of  the  early  English  factory 
system  were. to  be  reproduced,  and  the  corruption  in 
political  circles  was  to  render  any  legal  effort  to  rem- 
edy the  conditions  more  or  less  futile.  The  Northern 
victors  were  to  come  in  with  their  capital  and  to  intro- 
duce the  machine  industry  on  a  large  scale.  The  vast 
natural  and  industrial  resources  of  the  South  were  to 
be  uncovered  and  by  swift  steps  the  backwardness  and 
cpnservatism  of  years  were  to  be  abolished.  The  sol- 

110 


THE  RISE   OF   THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM  111 

diers  of  the  conquering  North,  who  battered  their  way 
into  the  stronghold  of  feudalism  were  only  repeating 
an  old  story;  they,  as  their  progenitors  in  Europe, 
were  only  paving  the  way  for  the  new  industrialism. 
The  factory  was  to  be  substituted  for  the  manor  house ; 
the  mine  and  the  foundry  for  the  open  country  and 
the  field ;  the  lash  of  competitive  industry  for  the  lash 
of  the  overseer.  A  labor  question  was  to  arise.  The 
negroes  in  spite  of  their  increased  numbers  were  to  be 
steadily  refused  political  power.  An  absentee  capital- 
ism was  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  residential  land- 
lordism and  the  South  was  gradually  to  be  brought 
into  the  dominant  system.  The  lands  were  wasted  in 
the  Southern  States,  the  crops  were  unsown  or  de- 
stroyed, property  of  every  sort  was  rendered  practi- 
cally valueless  by  the  close  of  the  war,  yet  such  is  the 
power  of  human  society  to  recreate  and  to  supply  in 
excess  of  its  own  needs,  that  before  long  the  Northern 
conquerors  were  in  fear  of  the  result  of  a  coalition  be- 
tween the  Southern  small  farmers  and  small  traders 
with  those  of  the  West,  and  dreaded  the  possibility  of 
a  Democratic  victory  which  would  endanger  the  sta- 
bility of  the  new  greater  capitalism. 

It  was  this  new  capitalism  which  had  really  profited 
by  the  war.  All  the  struggle  and  suffering  of  the 
common  soldier  and  those  dependent  upon  him  had 
had  this  result — that  there  had  at  last  come  into  ex- 
istence that  class  of  greater  capitalists  in  the  United 
States  which  already  existed  across  the  water.  The 
economic  system  took  a  bound  forward  as  the  result  of 
the  Civil  War.  Henceforward  the  individual  was  to 
have  less  opportunity  of  acquiring  that  independence, 
the  chances  of  which  had  really,  in  his  eyes,  constitu- 


112         THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

ted  the  chief  charm  of  the  Republic.  The  power  of 
accumulating  independent  wealth  and  the  opportunity 
to  do  so,  which  are  the  essential  conditions  of  an  indi- 
vidualistic democracy,  were  to  be  henceforth  taken 
from  the  inhabitants  of  this  country  and  the  way  made 
clear  for  the  establishment  of  an  irresponsible  oligar- 
chy, which  under  the  cloak  of  law  and  the  constitu- 
tion, practically  maintains  its  position  by  a  paid  judi- 
ciary and  a  hired  legislature.  In  its  final  effects  the 
Civil  War  did  much  more  than  abolish  slavery,  it  abol- 
ished that  which  had  always  been  known  as  Amer- 
icanism. The  essentially  American  features  were 
henceforth  to  be  swamped  in  a  flood  of  particularly  vul- 
gar international  capitalism.  The  federal  troops  whose 
return  from  the  war  had  brought  joy  to  so  many  lovers 
of  freedom  who  saw  on  their  banners  only  inscrip- 
tions of  liberty  were  to  constitute  the  bodyguard  and 
protection  of  the  new  greater  capitalism  and  were  to 
shed  the  blood  of  American  workingmen  in  the  streets 
of  American  cities  within  twelve  years  of  the  close  of 
the  conflict.  The  new  Capitalism  was  the  victor.  And 
Wendell  Phillips,  Horace  Greeley  and  others,  whose 
intellect  and  sympathy  had  contributed  to  the  success 
of  the  Northern  arms,  broke  their  hearts  in  vain  pro- 
test against  the  power  which  they  had  called  into 
being. 

While  the  armies  were  suffering  and  dying  in  the 
front  there  had  arisen  a  powerful  and  rich  class  which 
had  made  fortunes  out  of  the  war,  some  legitimately, 
others  by  methods  which  would  be  condemned  even 
by  the  ordinary  business  man.  War  in  itself  is  a 
stimulus  to  industry.  The  destruction  of  commodities 
calls  perpetually  for  their  renewal  and  the  sudden  de- 


THE   RISE  OF  THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM  113 

mand  for  many  thousands  of  articles, — uniforms,  small 
arms,  shoes,  etc.,  stimulates  production  on  a  large 
scale.  The  necessity  of  supplying  these  needs  brought 
into  being  a  better  organized  factory  system  than  had 
hitherto  been  seen,  and  the  cotton  and  woolen  indus- 
tries in  particular  received  a  tremendous  impetus. 
Large  fortunes  would,  therefore,  have  been  made  had 
the  contracts  of  the  government  been  honestly  filled, 
and  the  armies  supplied  with  what  was  actually  or- 
dered. But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  war  was  conspicu- 
ous for  the  corruption  of  those  who  took  government 
contracts.  The  most  outrageously  inferior  and  actually 
worthless  articles  were  supplied  to  the  troops  by  these 
patriotic  capitalists  at  whose  service  the  troops,  who 
suffered  death  and  disease  owing  to  their  corrupt 
manipulations,  were  afterwards  to  be  placed.  The 
manipulation  of  the  tariff  and  criminal  blockade  run- 
ning made  great  fortunes  for  others  of  the  new  capital- 
ism. The  traders  appeared  to  consider  the  army  as 
just  so  much  material  for  profit  making  and  proved 
the  truth  of  the  oft  repeated  maxim  that  there  is  no 
patriotism  in  trade.  The  industrialists  made  large 
profits  by  the  tariff  and  the  demands  of  the  war,  and 
the  financial  class  found,  in  the  floating  of  the  war 
debt,  an  opportunity  for  the  making  of  great  wealth. 

The  period  of  politics  succeeding  the  close  of  the 
war  was  a  veritable  Walpurgis-Nacht  of  swindle  and 
corruption.  The  representatives  of  the  victors  settled 
down  on  the  government  like  a  swarm  of  locusts  and 
proceeded  to  devour.  It  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to 
catalogue  the  political  crimes  and  the  endless  pecula- 
tions of  the  successful  Republican  politicians.  The 
reputations  of  even  the  highest  officials  were  smirched. 


114         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

The  Whiskey  Ring  and  the  Credit  Mobilier  were  only 
conspicuous  instances  of  what  was  exceedingly  com- 
mon. The  era  of  rings  and  combinations  supervened 
and  in  the  matter  of  the  Erie  Ring  we  have  the  first 
well  authenticated  instance  of  what  has  since  become 
far  too  common,  the  corruption  of  justice  and  the  in- 
fidelity of  the  judiciary.  The  Credit  Mobilier,  a  Con- 
struction Company  of  the  Central  Pacific  Company, 
engaged  in  wholesale  bribery,  and  the  naval  strength 
of  the  country  was  scandalously  below  that  which  it 
should  have  shown  in  proportion  to  its  cost.  Repre- 
hensible as  were  the  methods  of  those,  who  might  be 
termed  the  irregulars  and  bashi-ba-zouks  of  the  Re- 
publican army,  the  manouevres  of  the  regular  forces 
amounted  to  little  else  save  the  protection  and  devel- 
opment of  the  party  of  the  greater  capitalism.  There 
was  one  danger  which  the  new  capitalism  feared  in 
politics  and  that  was  the  combination  of  the  small  in- 
dustrials with  their  fellows  of  the  South  and  West. 
Such  a  combination  would  have  been  too  much  for  the 
greater  capitalism  at  that  particular  period.  It  was 
necessary  therefore  that  the  Southern  States  should 
not  easily  come  back  into  the  Union  as  Democratic 
States.  A  political  power  had  to  be  constructed  in  the 
South  which  would  offset  the  formerly  dominant  slave 
owner  power.  The  newly  liberated  negroes  were  to  be 
enfranchised  so  that  they  might  uphold  the  govern- 
ment of  the  greater  capitalism.  Lincoln  had  seen  the 
growth  of  the  great  corporations  during  the  war  and 
had  prophesied  that  the  next  trouble  would  arise  in 
connection  with  this  new  phenomenon.  On  his  death, 
Andrew  Johnson,  whose  sympathies  were  very  largely 
with  the  smaller  men,  was  left  as  the  legatee  of  Lin- 


THE  RISE   OF   THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM  115 

coin's  policy  and  this  he  endeavored  to  carry  out  in  a 
somewhat  blundering  and  tactless  fashion.  But  the 
admission  of  the  Southern  States  was  just  what  was 
not  wanted  by  the  greater  capitalists.  When  they 
found  in  Johnson  an  opponent  to  their  policy  they 
flouted  him  in  every  way  and  repeatedly  passed  acts 
over  his  veto.  All  the  professed  respect  of  the  capi- 
talistic class  for  the  head  of  the  nation  proved  to  be 
just  so  much  humbug  when  that  class  was  confronted 
by  a  President  who  did  not  at  once  perform  its  will. 
The  Freedman's  Bureau  Bill  passed  in  this  way  in  1866 
was  ostensibly  directed  at  the  preservation  of  the 
negro  ex-slave  from  cruelty  at  the  hands  of  his  former 
masters.  In  reality  it  resulted  in  the  manipulation  of 
the  negro  vote  in  favor  of  the  Northern  party,  by  po- 
litical adventurers  from  the  North,  who,  being  practi- 
cally in  control  of  the  new  state  governments,  created 
out  of  the  negro  votes,  indulged  themselves  in  the 
most  shameless  thievery  at  the  expense  of  the  South- 
ern States.  The;  Reconstruction  Acts  divided  the 
country  into  military  districts  and  practically  abol- 
ished the  pardon  of  the  President,  in  that  it  disfran- 
chised all  who  had  held  offices  in  the  Confederate 
service  during  the  war.  It  could  not  be  expected  that 
the  Southerners  would  sit  down  to  be  dominated  by 
their  old  slaves  and,  as  the  military  forces  of  the  gov- 
ernment prevented  an  appeal  to  open  violence,  they 
accomplished  by  means  of  the  Ku-Klux-Klan,  a  se- 
cret organization,  the  destruction  of  the  reconstructed 
governments.  It  must  be  remembered  also  that  the 
vagrancy  laws  of  the  South,  which  were  aimed  at  driv- 
ing the  negro  population  back  to  work  on  terms  agree- 
able to  the  Southern  planter,  gave  the  Northern  manu- 


116         THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

facturers  a  colorable,  if  hypocritical,  ground  of  inter- 
ference. Johnson  was  pursued  by  every  imaginable 
means  and  an  attempt  to  impeach  him  on  the  flimsiest 
grounds  was  made.  By  a  skilful  use  of  the  press  and 
other  means  of  influencing  public  opinion,  the  greater 
capitalists,  although  unsuccessful  in  their  impeachment 
proceedings,  aroused  such  hostility  against  Johnson 
that  he  was  no  longer  a  political  possibility. 

There  has  seldom  been  a  party  with  more  glorious 
opportunities  for  the  achievement  of  political  ends 
than  the  Republican  Party.  It  was  practically  free 
from  criticism  during  the  first  and  most  important 
years  of  its  rule.  It  had  the  country  completely  under 
its  control,  and  it  manipulated  affairs  in  the  interests 
of  its  economic  supporters  more  shamelessly  and  un- 
blushingly  perhaps  than  any  party  ever  did.  It  used 
the  war  for  years  as  a  means  of  political  advantage 
and  kept  alive  sectional  hatred  by  appeals  to  the  pas- 
sions aroused  by  the  conflict  in  the  interests  of  fac- 
tional strife.  In  fact  so  much  use  was  made  of  the 
war  as  a  political  weapon  that  only  in  the  present 
generation  has  there  arisen  an  electorate  to  whom  it 
makes  no  further  appeal  and  which  cannot  be  led  far 
on  purely  sectional  sentiment.  Even  the  war  tariff  was 
found  to  be  insufficient  for  the  grasping  needs  of  the 
greater  capitalism  and  the  industrialists  demanded 
concession  after  concession  that  the  whole  country 
might  be  placed  under  a  burden  for  the  sake  of  the 
developing  industrialism.  This  tariff  policy  naturally 
affected  Great  Britain  more  than  any  other  country 
as  she  was  at  that  time  the  chief  exporting  country 
and  the  old  slumbering  hostilities  were  awakened 
again  and  again  by  the  Republican  Party  as  a  means 


THE  RISE   OF   THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM  117 

of  stirring  up  the  masses  to  support  the  high  tariff 
policy.  And  yet  with  all  its  corruption  and  fraud, 
with  its  hypocritically  false  patriotic  gush,  the  Re- 
publican Party  was  the  only  possible  political  party 
during  this  period.  Its  mission  was  the  consolidation 
of  the  power  of  the  greater  capitalists.  It  was  in  the 
name  of  the  Republic  to  destroy  the  Republic  and  to 
establish  the  oligarchy.  In  the  transformation  of  the 
Democratic  republic,  which  the  men  of  fifty  years  ago 
honestly  believed  was  theirs,  to  the  travesty  on  de- 
mocracy which  exists  to-day,  the  Republican  Party  has 
had  the  great  and  really  indispensable  share.  It  has 
been  the  chosen  instrument  of  the  greater  capitalism 
for  the  achievement  of  its  purposes.  In  all  this  tre- 
mendous work  it  has  produced  no  statesmen  since  the 
death  of  Lincoln  to  whom  the  term  "great"  can  be  ap- 
plied. In  fact  it  has  displayed  an  almost  inexplicable 
lack  of  conspicuous  talent  and  it  has  accomplished  its 
ends  rather  by  the  degradation  of  politics  and  the 
wholesale  corruption  of  officials  than  by  conspicuous 
gifts  of  political  organization. 

While  the  politicians  were  extending  the  power  of 
the  greater  capitalism  and  were  making  the  laws  and 
the  judicial  decisions  conform  to  the  actual  economic 
facts,  the  greater  industry  which  lay  at  the  base  of  all 
this  economic  activity  was  literally  leaping  along  the 
route  of  its  4estmv-  The  most  dazzling  transforma- 
tions, the  most  complete  revolutionary  changes  in  the 
methods  of  production  occurred  during  the  period  of 
which  we  write.  In  a  period  of  less  than  thirty  years 
the  modes  of  economic  production  in  the  fundamental 
industries  were  changed.  The  introduction  of  the  Bes- 
semer steel  process  and  the  substitution  of  coke  for 


118         THE   RISE   OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

coal  and  charcoal  had  so  affected  that  industry  that  the 
manufacture  of  steel  has  run  far  ahead  of  that  of  iron. 
The  production  of  steel  which  was  less  than  twelve 
thousand  tons  in  1860  had  increased  to  more  than  five 
millions  of  tons  in  1890.  In  that  year  the  United 
States  production  of  steel  outstripped  that  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  latter  power  was  compelled  to  surren- 
der the  leadership  in  the  steel  industry.  The  great  im- 
petus in  the  development  of  the  steel  industry  was  the 
marvellous  expansion  of  the  railroad  industry.  In  the 
eight  years  succeeding  the  war,  more  than  thirty  thou- 
sand miles  of  road  had  been  constructed,  and  the  branch 
lines  and  small  systems  which  had  had  an  independent 
existence  prior  to  the  war  were  beginning  to  assume 
the  form  of  the  great  railroad  systems  as  we  see  them 
to-day.  The  transcontinental  road  was  completed  and 
now  the  greater  capitalism  of  the  East  had  at  its  dis- 
posal the  market  of  the  entire  country.  The  rapidly 
filling  lands  to  the  West  were  to  be  traversed  by  lines 
of  railroad  and  the  farmers  and  settlers  made  practi- 
cally the  bond  slaves  of  the  great  transportation  com- 
panies. Other  industries  arose  in  connection  with  the 
great  railroad  industry,  among  which  may  be  particu- 
larly mentioned  that  of  packing.  That  which  is  now 
one  of  the  greatest  and  most  tyrannically  administered 
forms  of  capitalistic  activity,  owed  its  origin  to  the  in- 
vention of  refrigerator  cars.  The  telegraph  which  had 
been  in  operation  prior  to  the  war  was  now  made  of 
general  use  and  the  Atlantic  cable,  which  was  com- 
pleted in  1866,  served  to  bring  the  capitalist  class  of 
this  country  into  much  closer  connection  with  that  of 
Europe.  With  the  laying  of  the  Atlantic  cable  and  the 
extension  of  the  telegraph  to  San  Francisco,  the  en- 


THE   RISE  OF  THE  GREATER   CAPITALISM  119 

tire  continent  was  in  communication  with  the  heart  of 
modern  capitalism  and  the  international  capitalism  had 
really  found  itself.  The  better  instruments  required 
by  the  new  capitalism  with  its  tremendous  amount  of 
routine  work  were  discovered  in  the  invention  of  the 
typewriter  and  the  telephone  which  have  now  become 
such  necessary  adjuncts  to  the  carrying  on  of  business 
that  without  their  aid  the  bulk  of  the  work  required  by 
the  modern  system  could  not  be  performed.  The  fac- 
tory system  underwent  great  modifications,  and  the 
textile  industries,  the  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes 
and  other  similar  trades  in  which  the  modern  factory 
modes  of  production  had  taken  the  place  of  the  older 
handicraft,  were  organized  and  their  machinery  un- 
derwent a  process  of  development  which  increased 
their  productive  powers  almost  incredibly.  The  sew- 
ing machine,  which,  on  its  invention,  had  been  regarded 
as  a  beneficent  design  to  mitigate  the  labors  of  hard- 
worked  housewives,  was  converted  into  an  instrument 
of  torture,  and  has  rendered  possible  the  institution 
and  the  perpetuation  of  that  system  which  under  the 
name  of  "sweating"  has  provoked  much  eloquent  de- 
nunciation and  has  furnished  a  splendid  theme  for  the 
sensational  writer.  Throughout  the  whole  field  of  in- 
dustry the  changes  took  place  and  the  demands  of  the 
great  industrialists  for  still  more  rapid  production  of 
commodities  stimulated  invention  so  that  the  number 
of  patents  applied  for  increased  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  give  the  country  a  universal  reputation  for  me- 
chanical ingenuity. 

The  concentration  of  industry  was  a  result  of  the 
development  of  the  market  and  the  improvement 'in 
the  machines.  How  marked  that  concentration  was 


120         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

may  be  seen  from  the  figures  published  by  the  U.  S. 
Government  in  the  last  census  returns  on  "Manufac- 
tures," from  which  it  appears  that,  in  the  period  here 
considered,  the  number  of  establishments  in  thirteen 
leading  industries  decreased  from  13,616  to  11,617,  in 
spite  of  a  great  increase  in  population  and  an  unques- 
tionably vastly  increased  demand  for  the  articles  manu- 
factured. Combined  with  the  diminution  of  the  num- 
ber of  actual  manufacturing  plants,  we  find  necessarily 
a  notable  improvement  in  their  effectiveness  and  a 
striking  application  of  machinery  to  uses,  hitherto  un- 
dreamed of,  together  with  an  economy  in  production, 
which  made  use  of  much  that  had  up  to  that  time  been 
wasted,  an  economy  also  which  was  extended  to  the 
saving  of  labor  power  and  the  consequent  expense  in 
every  possible  way.  The  result  has  been  the  formation 
of  an  army  of  tramps  and  unemployed.  Even  in  the 
best  times  the  reserve  army  of  labor  is  not  fully  occu- 
pied, but  when  there  is  retrenchment  in  manufacturing, 
owing  to  the  overcrowding  of  the  market,  the  unem- 
ployed question  becomes  very  pressing  and  the  horde 
of  tramps  grows  into  a  matter  of  national  concern. 
This  unemployed  and  tramping  host  is  directly  the 
product  of  this  concentration  of  industry  and  is  the 
penalty  which  must  be  paid  by  the  community  for  the 
monopolization  of  the  instruments  of  production  by 
a  small  and  ever  diminishing  number  of  people.  Every 
new  machine  introduces  a  small  revolution  into  the 
lives  of  groups  of  working  people  so  that  those  who 
are  unable  to  accommodate  themselves  to  the  new  con- 
ditions are  flung  out  of  the  system  and  are  driven  to 
vagabondage  and  crime.  A  certain  small  percentage 
of  such  people  as  are  not  able  to  accommodate  them- 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREATER  CAPITALISM  121 

selves  to  the  society  in  which  they  find  themselves  as 
well  as  to  such  changes  as  the  exigencies  of  that  so- 
ciety require  are  to  be  found  in  every  stage  of  human 
progress.     In  the  earlier  periods  of  American  history 
they  had  been  accounted  for  by  the  back  country  and 
the  free  land.    The  unemployed  and  the  unemployable 
as  far  as  they  then  existed  had  made  a  living  from  the 
soil  and  had  succeeded  in  establishing  themselves  by 
means  of  migration,  where  they  had  failed  in  the  or- 
ganized society  into  which  they  were  born.     But  this 
vent  for  the  thousands  who  were  continually  driven 
out  by  the  encroachments  of  the  machine  and  the  or- 
ganized industry  was  fast  being  closed.    The  free  land 
was  being  taken  up  rapidly.    The  railroads  were  being 
endowed  with  it  wholesale.     Private  corporations  of 
all  descriptions  were  plundering  the  magnificent  prop- 
erty of  the  masses  of  this  country  and  corrupt  law 
courts  and  legislative  assemblies  were  setting  the  seal 
of  their  approval  upon  the  most  colossal  piece  of  rob- 
bery.    Besides  the  formation  of  a  pauper  proletariat 
and  a  numerous  criminal  class,  by  the  revolutionary 
operation  of  the  modern  machine  industry,  the  num- 
bers of  this  class  were  constantly  augmented  by  the 
addition  of  the  small  manufacturers  and  traders  who 
werje    continually   being   driven   to   the   wall   by   the 
greater  industry.    These  latter  were  crowded  into  the 
ranks  of  the  unskilled  proletariat  and  found  it  impossi- 
ble to  extricate  themselves  from  the  ruin  which  hurled 
them  from  their  apparently  secure  position  in  times  of 
crisis  and   commercial   depression.     They  were   con- 
fronted by  forces  over  which  they  had  no  control.  They 
were  unable  to  purchase  the  machinery  necessary  for 
profitable  production;  they  had  no  knowledge  as  to 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 


how  the  game  of  modern  trade  is  played  for  they  were 
not  in  the  circle  of  the  high  finance;  they  could  not 
command  politcal  influence.  In  fact  the  cards  were 
stacked  against  them  from  the  start  and  the  small  pro- 
ducer was  doomed  as  a  permanent  factor  directly  the 
great  industry  was  established.  There  was  then  a  con- 
stant fall  of  small  producers  and  traders  into  the  ranks 
of  the  proletariat  and  the  formation  of  a  slum  proleta- 
riat composed  of  the  broken  industrial  proletariat  and 
this  smaller  middle  class.  The  growth  of  this  proleta- 
rian class  was  noted  by  Henry  George  in  the  eighties 
and  the  connection  between  the  monopolization  of  the 
public  domain  and  the  rise  of  this  class  did  not  escape 
his  notice,  in  fact  he  laid  too  much  stress  upon  the 
coincidence  of  the  two  phenomena.  The  extent  of  the 
concentration  of  industry  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  quotation  from  Carroll  D.  Wright's  "Indus- 
trial Evolution  of  the  United  States."  Mr.  Wright 
may  be  taken  as  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  greater  industry  and  an  enthusiastic  apolo- 
gist for  it.  He  says  : 

"There  were  1,091  establishments  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  in  1860  with  an  average  product 
of  $106,033  and  an  average  of  4,799  spindles  per  estab- 
lishment. In  1890  there  were  905  establishments  with 
an  average  product  of  $296,112,  and  an  average  of  15,- 
677  spindles,  an  increase  of  179  per  cent  in  the  product 
and  of  227  per  cent  in  the  number  of  spindles  per 
establishment.  During  the  same  period  (1860-1890) 
the  aggregate  capital  invested  in  the  industry  increased 
from  $98,585,269,  to  $354,020,843,  or  259  per  cent,  and 
the  value  of  product  from  $115,681,774  to  $267,981,- 
724  or  132  per  cent.  The  decrease  in  the  number  of  es- 


THE  RISE   OF   THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM  123 

tablishments  and  increase  in  the  value  of  product,  as 
well  as  the  increase  in  the  size  of  the  average  estab- 
lishment, indicate  the  extent  to  which  the  industry  has 
been  concentrated  in  fewer  and  larger  establishments/' 
The  effects  of  this  sort  of  concentration  applied  to 
every  department  of  production  were  not  long  in  mak- 
ing themselves  felt.  With  the  displacement  of  large 
numbers  of  men  there  came  in  also  the  greater  em- 
ployment of  women.  The  factories  and  the  sweat 
shops,  besides  other  avenues,  called  increasingly  for 
the  employment  of  women  who  were  not  organized 
and  whose  wages  corresponded  with  the  lower  standard 
of  living.  Even  this  labor  was  not  cheap  enough  for 
the  employers  and  still  cheaper  labor  was  continually 
sought  and  imported.  The  new  system  made  the 
greatest  inroads  upon  the  marriage-life  of  the  commu- 
nity and  by  driving  the  woman  into  the  factory  and 
other  places  of  employment  not  only  reduced  the  pay 
of  the  husband  but  paved  the  way  for  the  break-up  of 
the  family  and  brought  about  that  uncertain  condition 
of  matrimonial  relations  on  which  prelates  expatiate  so 
earnestly.  The  numbers  of  married  women  employed 
steadily  increased  as  did  also  the  numbers  of  children 
and  within  thirty  years  of  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
the  question  of  child  labor  had  reached  a  point  where 
some  drastic  solution  was  necessary  for  it  had  placed 
this  country  in  a  most  backward  and  indeed  disgraceful 
position  as  far  as  the  treatment  of  its  children  was  con- 
cerned. 

The  above  and  other  equally  embarrassing  social 
problems  were  presented  as  a  result  of  the  period  of 
commercial  development  in  the  period  succeeding  the 
Civil  War.  They  are  inherent  in  the  present  industrial 


124         THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

system  and  every  country  in  which  that  system  is 
prevalent  is  confronted  by  them.    The  rapidity  of  the 
transformation  here,  however,  and  the  unsystematized 
modes  of  life  enabled  them  to  get  a  grip  on  the  coun- 
try which  cannot  readily  be  shaken  off.    The  state  sys- 
tem which  had  been  apparently  well  suited  for  a  more 
rudimentary  and  democratic  community  proved  to  be  of  im- 
mense service  to  the  dominant  industrialists  in  the  ex- 
ploitation of  the  masses.    The  influence  of  wealth  in  a 
locality  of  comparatively  sparse  population  and  lim- 
ited area  will  easily  be  seen,  and,  corrupt  as  the  House 
at  Washington  has  been,  its  political  morality  is  purity 
itself  compared  with  the  degree  of  civic  virtue  to  be 
found  in  the  legislatures  of  the  various  states.    A  sys- 
tem of  rings  and  bosses  to  carry  out  the  political  wishes 
of  the  dominant  class  was  called  into  being  and  whole 
communities  were  in  the  grip  of  political  spoilsmen. 
Boss  Tweed  of  New  York  was  only  a  conspicuous  ex- 
ample of  the  sort  of  men  who  were  in  control  of  cities 
and  states.    Much  indignation  has  been  spent  upon  the 
political  robbers,  but  inquiry  has  seldom  been  pushed 
far  enough  to  lay  bare  the  financial  interests  in  whose 
behalf  these  politicians  manouevred.    For,  every  politi- 
cal boss  is  merely  the  agent  of  some  respectable  firm 
or  corporation  which  is  achieving  its  economic  objects 
by  this  prostitution  of  the  law.    And  in  the  period  now 
under  consideration  the   capitalistic  concerns  took  a 
new  guise  which  made  their  political  work  more  easy 
and  protected  themselves  more  effectually.    The  capi- 
talistic firm  developed  into  the  capitalistic  corporation. 
The  corporation  is  the  negation  of  the  principles 
upon  which  the  claim  to  individual  ownership  of  capi- 
tal is  based.     The  members   of   the    corporation,   the 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREATER   CAPITALISM  125 

stockholders,  do  not  necessarily  have  anything  to  do 
with  the  work  which  the  corporation  undertakes  to  do. 
They  employ  an  agent,  a  man  working  for  wages,  a 
manager,  who  transacts  their  business ;  they  share  the 
dividends  of  the  profits  produced  by  the  business.  In 
this  instance,  the  capitalist  ceases  to  even  pretend  to 
be  a  producer,  he  becomes  a  capitalist  per  se,  and  ob- 
viously has  no  claims  upon  the  wealth  produced  by 
the  community  other  than  the  claim  which  the  law  al- 
lows him  by  virtue  of  the  invested  capital.  He  cannot 
even  invest  his  money  as  he  likes  and  take  the  chances 
of  the  market,  for  he  is  obliged  to  submit  to  the  will 
of  the  majority  of  the  stock  in  the  corporation  even 
when  the  actions  of  tb  majority  stockholders  may 
threaten  to  ruin  him.  L  nore  than  one  case  the  ma- 
jority stockholders  have  wrecked  a  road  and  repur- 
chased it  on  terms  "ruinous  to  the  interests  of  the  mi- 
nority." The  vast  amounts  of  money  which  such  cor- 
porations have  been  able  to  acquire  has  given  them  an 
overwhelming  influence  in  American  life  and  has  pro- 
voked a  very  marked  hostiHty  on  the  part  of  the  small 
producers  who  have  been  quite  unable  to  compete  with 
them.  Banking  and  railways  had  early  offered  the 
best  opportunity  for  corporate  activity  and  the  first 
corporations  of  this  country  were  instituted  in  con- 
nection with  these  pursuits.  But  in  the  period  with 
which  we  are  concerned  industrial  production  had  so 
far  developed  and  offered  such  an  excellent  field  for 
capitalistic  exploitation  that  the  corporation  method 
was  extended  to  productive  industry  and  a  beginning 
was  made  of  those  great  industrial  combinations  which 
a  little  later  were  to  make  the  corporation  look  like  a 
belated  and  elementary  form  of  organization.  Hence- 


126        THE  RISE  OF   THE  AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN .  . 

forth  the  power  of  the  greater  capitalist  was  practi- 
cally invincible.  This  development  of  the  corporation 
methods  of  industrialism  called  into  being  a  new  class 
of  lawyers  and  legislators  whose  special  business  was 
the  organization  of  the  corporations  and  the  provision 
of  such  legislation  as  would  be  most  favorable  to  their 
interests.  The  power  of  corporate  wealth  was  exer- 
cised mercilessly,  as  those  who  had  the  control  of  such 
wealth  could  make  or  unmake  the  career  of  the  lawyer 
or  the  legislator,  and  those  two  forms  of  activity  form- 
erly honorable,  sunk  consequently,  in  the  public  esti- 
mation until  it  is  questionable  whether  any  two  classes 
of  occupations  have  less  public  respect  than  those  of 
law  and  politics.  On  the  other  hand  the  greater  capi- 
talists themselves  retained  but  little  respect  for  those 
whose  services  they  were  able  to  procure  so  easily  and 
who  would  violate  the  fundamental  canons  of  their  pro- 
fessional ethics  in  the  pursuit  of  gain.  The  attitude 
of  the  industrial  magnate  towards  the  politician  is  il- 
lustrated in  the  following  .statement  of  Mr.  Andrew 
Carnegie,  which  is  taken  from  his  little  book  entitled 
"An  American  Four  in  Hand  in  Britain."  Mr.  Car- 
negie says:  "When  there  is  no  really  great  work  to 
be  done,  when  the  conflict  between  feudal  and  demo- 
cratic ideas  ends,  as  it  is  in  fact  coming  to  an  end, 
and  there  is  no 'vestige  of  privilege  left  from  throne 
to  knighthood,  only  vain,  weak  men  will  seek  election 
to  Parliament,  and  will  stand  ready  to  do  the  bidding 
of  the  constituencies,  as  our  agents  in  Congress  do." 
Here  Mr.  Carnegie,  in  a  probably  unpremeditated 
fit  of  frankness,  states  what  he  conceives  to  be  his 
idea  of  the  value  of  the  politician,  the  liberating  of  the 
community  from  feudal  rule,  that  is  the  putting  of  the 


THE  RISE  OF   THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM  127 

« 

industrialist  capitalist  in  the  saddle  and  then  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  will  of  that  industrial  capitalist. 
Vain,  weak  men  are  all  that  are  needed  for  such  a  task. 
That  is  true,  and  the  industrial  victory  has  been 
marked  by  the  dominance  of  politicians  with  just  those 
attributes.  Little  real  statesmanship  is  required  for  the 
continual  piling  up  of  tariffs  and  the  corruption  of 
a  judiciary. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  era  of  corporations  was  to 
be  seen  therefore  in  the  marked  deterioration  of  the 
personnel  of  the  bar  and  of  the  politicians.  There  was 
no  longer  any  real  fight  for  principles  and  the  com- 
mercialization of  politics  was  complete.  The  process 
of  industrialization  had  been  carried  to  such  an  extent 
that  the  avenues  of  public  expression  were  also  indus- 
trialized, and  church  and  university  surrendered 
equally  with  the  bar  and  the  political  platform.  The 
vulgarization  of  the  learned  professions  had  set  in  in 
earnest. 

The  concentration  of  great  masses  of  population  in 
the  large  cities  also  tended  to  increase  the  power  of  the 
industrial  lords.  These  cities  were  a  product  of  the 
system  and  they  lived  by  the  system  and  tended  to  the 
strengthening  and  the  aggrandizement  of  those  who 
controlled  the  system.  No  longer  was  the  great  stream 
of  immigration  diverted  into  the  waste  lands  of  the 
continent  where  the  farmer  hewed  out  a  home  for  him- 
self and  began  the  settlement  of  a  healthy  and  vigorous 
country  stock.  On  the  contrary  the  incoming  herds 
fresh  from  the  European  fields  were  crowded  more  and 
more  closely  in  the  great  cities  where  their  numbers 
kept  down  the  price  of  labor  and  their  votes,  bought 
and  sold  by  the  new  political  bosses,  were  made  to 


128        THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

serve  the  purposes  of  their  masters.  Thousands  worked 
in  gangs  on  the  construction  of  the  new  railroads, 
other  thousands  gathered  in  the  mining  camps  and  the 
colliery  districts  or  developed  the  fast  growing  steel 
industry  in  the  filthy  hells  of  Pennsylvania.  And  each 
new  tide  of  immigration  represented  a  less  well  organ- 
ized and  well  developed  people.  The  European  na- 
tions were  forced  to  compete  in  a  sort  of  Dutch  auc- 
tion against  one  another  for  the  benefit  of  the  greater 
capitalist.  Their  labor  force  increased  the  profits  of 
the  industrial  masters,  their  votes  went  to  maintain 
him  in  power  and  to  protect  him  against  the  ven- 
geance of  the  small  industrialist  whose  world  was 
slipping  away. 

This  new  industrial  organization,  however,  was  not 
accomplished  without  the  intervention  of  the  commer- 
cial crisis.  Twice  during  the  period  the  trade  of  the 
country  was  interrupted  and  the  whole  industrial  ma- 
chinery thrown  out  of  gear  by  the  sudden  stoppage  of 
the  wheels  of  industry. 

As  has  been  pointed  out,  the  investments  in  Amer- 
ican railways  in  the  period  succeeding  the  Civil  War 
were  simply  colossal.  Between  1867  and  1873  about 
two  billions  of  dollars  had  been  expended  in  the  con- 
struction of  railroads  of  which  "nearly  one-half  was 
represented  by  mortgage  bonds.  Hyndman  points  out 
that  the  Germans  had  invested  very  largely  in  these 
railroad  securities,  and  on  the  occurrence  of  a  money 
panic  in  Austria,  endeavored  to  realize  on  them.  This 
precipitated  a  panic  in  the  United  States,  the  results 
of  which  are  described  as  follows  by  the  author  already 
Deferred  to : 

"Throughout  the   whole   of  the   United  States   it 


THE  RISE   OF   THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM   '  129 

seemed  as  if  some  great  disruption  had  occurred.  There 
was  a  glut  in  every  department  of  trade  and  almost  it 
may  be  said  in  every  warehouse.  Mills,  factories  and 
workshops  of  every  kind  were  closed  in  the  West  as 
well  as  in  the  East,  or  worked  short  time.  The  almost 
universal  suspension  of  work  on  the  new  railways 
threw  tens  of  thousands  of  laborers  out  of  work,  while 
the  old  railways  only  made  such  betterments  as  were 
absolutely  indispensable.  The  influence  upon  the  iron 
and  steel  trades  and  upon  the  iron  and  coal  mining  in- 
dustries was  felt  immediately.  Thousands  of  men  were 
unavoidably  dismissed  in  these  departments,  and  from 
a  third  to  a  half  of  the  workpeople  of  the  Eastern  States 
were  said  to  be  without  employment.  The  number  of 
actual  'tramps'  during  the  winters  of  1873  and  1874 
was  placed  as  high  as  3,000,000  out  of  a  population  of 
40,000,000.  When  to  these  are  added  the  numbers  who 
starved  quietly  at  home,  the  proportion  of  workless 
persons  to  the  entire  population  seems  something 
prodigious." 

The  failure  of  many  railroads  followed  and  the 
country  was  in  a  wretched  state  for  some  time.  The 
business  tide,  however,  closed  over  the  loss,  and  the  les- 
sons of  the  crisis  were  speedily  forgotten.  But  the  con- 
tributions made  to  the  class  of  the  submerged  proleta- 
riat were  permanent.  The  laborers  who  lost  their  grip 
never  recovered  it  in  many  cases,  and  went  to  form 
that  human  wreckage  of  which  economists  take  so  littk 
account.  Thousands  of  small  traders  were  destroyed 
as  well  as  small  manufacturers  and  the  ranks  of  the 
proletariat  were  swollen  by  their  advent. 

Between  this  crisis  and  the  long  depression  of  trade 
in  the  early  eighties  the  development  of  electricity  as 


130         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

a  means  of  lighting  and  propulsion  took  place,  and  the 
energy  required  in  production  was  still  further  re- 
duced. The  output  was  so  improved  by  the  new  in- 
dustrial instruments  that  the  productive  power  of 
American  industries  had  increased  58  per  cent  during 
the  decade,  while  the  number  of  workers  employed  had 
only  increased  33  per  cent. 

It  became  increasingly  evident  that  the  new  or- 
ganization of  industry  was  no  better  for  the  working 
class  than  the  preceding  system.  It  had  brought  the 
proletarian  class  into  existence,  it  had  caused  the  de- 
velopment of  an  elaborate  system  of  production,  but  it 
could  not  protect  itself  against  the  ravages  of  the  com- 
mercial crisis  and  the  intermittent  depressions  which 
the  system  itself  rendered  inevitable.  It  stripped  the 
country  in  its  demand  for  labor  during  periods  of  in- 
dustrial prosperity  and  when  the  demand  slackened 
flung  back  its  slaves  upon  the  world  helpless  and  de- 
prived of  the  power  of  making  a  livelihood.  Besides 
this  it  ground  to  death  the  small  producers  and  petty 
capitalists  who  endeavored  with  their  slender  resources 
to  stand  up  against  it. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  latter  were  not 
speedily  made  aware  of  the  fate  which  was  destroying 
them.  They  endeavored  to  stem  the  tide  of  the  greater 
capitalism  by  means  of  politics.  Their  recognition  of 
Andrew  Johnson  as  a  champion  has  been  already 
noted,  and  the  fate  which  befell  that  unfortunate  op- 
ponent of  the  dominant  Republican  clique  has  been  de- 
scribed. Horace  Greeley  again  in  1872  took  up  their 
cause  and  went  down.  The  farmers,  in  the  meantime, 
had  formed  an  organization  under  the  name  of  the 
"Patrons  of  Industry"  and  as  a  political  party  called 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  GREATER  CAPITALISM  131 

the  "Farmers'  Alliance,"  won  a  number  of  political 
victories.  This  afterwards  developed  into  the  Populist 
Party,  of  which  more  later.  The  farmer  class  and  the 
debtor  class  generally,  however,  had  little  compre- 
hension of  the  trend  of  political  and  economic  events 
and  confined  their  energies  to  attempted  tinkering  with 
the  money  system,  as  appeared  in  the  formation  of  the 
Greenback  Party,  and  to  denunciations  of  the  corpora- 
tions, one  of  the  effects  of  which  was  the  legislation 
known  as  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act,  and  the  so- 
called  Anti-Trust  Law. 

The  proletarian,  who  was  now  a  distinct  factor  in 
the  industrial  life,  had  not,  however,  as  yet  taken  to 
politics  as  a  weapon.  He  was  chiefly  engaged  in  the 
formation  of  trades  unions  and  such  organizations  as 
would  enable  him  to  contend  against  the  employer  in 
the  shop.  There  were,  however,  faint  tendencies  ob- 
servable towards  political  action  even  in  the  early 
stages  of  the  trades  union  movement,  as  in  1870,  when 
the  National  Labor  Union  undertook  to  form  a  political 
party  with  an  indistinct  and  unintelligent  platform. 
The  period  was  one,  on  the  other  hand,  of  organization 
and  struggle  on  the  economic  field. 

The  tendency  towards  economic  organization  which 
was  discernible  prior  to  the  Civil  War  and  which  was 
interrupted  by  that  struggle  was  very  noticeable  at 
the  close  of  the  conflict.  Almost  immediately  trades 
organizations  sprang  up  and  the  years  between  the 
close  of  the  war  and  the  crisis  of  1873  were  filled  with 
efforts  on  the  part  of  the  working  class  to  improve  its 
economic  position.  Then  came  the  crisis  and  with  it, 
as  usual,  the  destruction  for  the  time  being  of  all  con- 
structive work  on  the  part  of  the  working  class.  Too 


132         THE  RISE  OF  THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

glad  to  get  any  work,  the  proletarians  were  obliged 
to  accept  what  was  offered  and  organization  was  sus- 
pended. When  the  great  industrial  machine  began  to 
right  itself,  however,  and  trade  prospects  looked  bright- 
er, the  American  proletariat  began  to  struggle  for 
better  opportunities.  In  one  sense,  however,  this  did 
not  mark  an  advance,  for  the  first  numerous  striken 
between  1873  and  1876  were  rather  efforts  to  regain 
the  economic  position  occupied  before  the  crisis  than 
to  improve  the  conditions  of  the  working  class  beyond 
the  point  hitherto  reached. 

The  energetic  enterprise  shown  by  these  pioneers 
of  labor  struggle  in  this  country  was  very  remarkable. 
Strikes  occurred  everywhere.  The  men,  though  un- 
organized, seemed  determined  to  fling  themselves  on 
the  enemy  and  took  the  chances  of  war  almost  des- 
perately. In  the  cotton  and  woolen  mills  of  Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  the  strikers 
simply  struck  and  then  sought  admission  to  the  as- 
semblies of  the  Knights  of  Labor  afterwards.  No  less 
than  thirty  thousand  miners  were  out  at  one  time. 
The  employers  on  their  part  were  not  slow  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  peculiar  instruments  of  capitalistic 
warfare.  The  lockout  and  the  black  list  came  into  play 
against  the  strike  and  the  boycott  and  all  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  pure  and  simple  trades  unionism  was 
brought  forthwith  into  play.  It  was  an  elementary 
period  of  industrial  development  and  the  cruder  weap- 
ons had  a  better  chance  of  accomplishing  something 
than  they  have  ever  had  since.  It  was  during  this 
period  of  the  economic  fight  that  the  absurd  devotion 
of  the  working  class  to  the  strike  and  boycott  really 
began.  Another  reason  for  the  confinement  of  the  pro- 


THE  RISE   OF   THE  GREATER   CAPITALISM  133 

letariat  to  these  means  of  advancing  its  interests  lies 
in  the  fact  that  there  was  at  that  time  no  properly  or- 
ganized proletariat  with  any  conception  of  its  class  po- 
sition and  its  class  aims.  The  trades  union  contests  of 
this  era  were  not  strictly  speaking  proletarian  strug- 
gles. They  were  the  struggles  of  individuals  who  were 
individually  discontented  with  their  economic  position 
and  had  banded  themselves  together  to  better  it.  One 
fact  is,  however,  very  noticeable,  that  the  men  who  a 
few  years  before  would  have  gone  to  the  frontier  were 
no  longer  doing  so,  the  frontier  was  being  eliminated; 
behind  them,  the  bridges  were  broken  down,  the  same 
conflict  threatened  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  as  on 
the  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  The  last  refuge  of  the 
American  working  man  was  destroyed.  If  he  were  to 
secure  anything  like  decent  conditions  he  could  no 
longer  do  so  by  running  away  from  society.  Society 
held  him  fast.  His  only  chance  was  to  turn  and  face 
his  employer. 

To  men  who  had  only  a  few  years  before  been 
fighting  the  bloodiest  war  of  the  century  physical  con- 
flict did  not  perhaps  seem  so  dreadful  as  it  has  since 
done  to  their  successors.  These  early  trades  unionists 
at  all  events  did  not  hesitate  to  give  desperate  battle 
to  the  authorities  and  in  more  than  one  instance  to 
inflict  defeat  on  the  forces  sent  against  them.  The 
great  Railroad  Strike  of  1877  is  a  case  in  point.  The 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  had  declared  a  reduction 
of  wages  by  ten  per  cent.  The  scale  of  pay  for  railroad 
men  was  so  low  that  it  was  only  with  the  greatest 
difficulty  that  they  were  able  to  maintain  themselves 
and  families.  This  threatened  reduction  was  more  than 
they  could  endure,  and,  practically  unorganized,  as  they 


134:        THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

were,  they  struck.  The  strike  began  at  Martinsburg, 
West  Virginia,  by  the  crew  of  an  engine  spontaneously 
leaving  work,  and  spread  with  such  enthusiasm  that  in 
the  course  of  three  days,  the  entire  Eastern  railroad 
system  was  paralyzed.  Other  workers  joined  in  the 
movement  and  a  great  spontaneous  upheaval  of  labor 
followed.  Some  militia  fraternized  with  the  strikers, 
but  others  stood  firm  and  the  regulars  were  sent  for. 
In  Baltimore  the  troops  fired  repeatedly  into  the 
crowds.  In  Pittsburg  the  troops  fired  into  the  people 
who  thereupon  turned  and  attacked  the  militia  so  tha't 
the  latter  were  driven  away  and  chased  into  a  round- 
house, but  succeeded  in  escaping  the  next  day. 

These  first  attempts  at  rebellion  were  crushed  by 
the  military  forces  and  the  working  class  subsided  for 
the  time  being  into  apparent  tranquility.  But  how  lit- 
tle reliance  could  be  placed  in  the  continuance  of  ac- 
quiescence in  the  rule  of  the  new  greater  capitalism 
was  evident  in  1880,  when  a  large  number  of  strikes 
occurred.  The  agitation  for  the  eight-hour  day  now 
began  to  assunie  large  proportions  and  the  Knights  of 
Labor  appeared  as  the  champions  of  that  demand.  The 
Knights  of  Labor  was  a  secret  organization,  in  its  in- 
ception, and  was  a  curious  admixture  of  labor  organi- 
zation and  a  sort  of  free  masonry.  An  air  of  mystery 
surrounded  its  earlier  history  and  it  did  not  attain  any 
real  importance  until  during  the  first  five  or  six  years 
of  the  eighties.  Its  declarations  have  a  certain  flavor 
of  the  complaint  of  the  smaller  middle  class  of  that  pe- 
riod as  the  declaration  of  principles  refers  to  "the 
alarming  aggressiveness  of  the  power  of  money  and 
corporations,"  phrases  which  might  have  been  easily 
uttered  by  a  representative  of  the  Farmers'  Alliance. 


THE  RISE  OF   THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM  135 

The  demands  made  by  the  organization  will  have  a 
very  familiar  ring  in  the  ears  of  the  modern  American. 
They  are  such  as  have  been  made  by  almost  every  re- 
form association  of  modern  times — the  Referendum, 
the  creation  of  labor  bureaus,  and  laws  providing  for 
special  inspection  of  places  of  employment  and  ma- 
chinery. Some  of  the  claims  of  the  earlier  American 
labor  movement  were  revived  by  them  such  as  the 
claim  for  indemnification  for  injuries  received  in  the 
course  of  employment,  a  principle  which  the  courts 
have  practically  nullified,  by  their  interpretation  of 
the  doctrine  of  contributory  negligence.  Other  old 
demands  were  for  a  regular  weekly  pay  day  and  for 
a  lien  for  mechanics.  The  secrecy  of  the  order  was 
abolished  in  1881  at  Detroit,  and  from  that  date  began 
its  real  growth  though  it  was  still  a  small  organization 
in  1885.  In  1886  it  had  reached  the  height  of  its  power 
and  began  henceforward  to  decline.  Its  decay  was  in 
part  due  to  its  inefficient  and  cumbersome  methods  of 
organization  and  in  part  also  to  the  dishonesty  of  its 
officials,  who  set  themselves  to  profit  by  the  finances 
of  the  order  as  soon  as  it  became  strong.  The  subse- 
quent career  of  some  of  these  leaders  point  to  the  ex- 
istence also  of  considerable  political  corruption  in  the 
ranks  of  the  order  itself.  Still  with  all  its  faults  the 
Knights  of  Labor  might,  in  capable  and  intelligent 
hands,  have  proved  a  very  successful  proletarian  or- 
ganization. Its  methods  were  such  that  the  working 
class  as  a  whole  might  have  found  in  it  an  opportunity 
for  the  expression  of  their  desires  and  ambitions  and 
its  progress  might  have  been  indicative  of  the  intel- 
lectual political  progress  of  the  working  class.  Such, 
however,  was  not  the  destiny  of  the  Knights  and  like 


136         THE   RISE   OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

too  many  attempts  at  working  class  agitation,  it  has 
disappeared,  leaving  only  an  unpleasant  memory. 

It  was  succeeded  by  a  new  organization  which  has 
been  since  known  as  "The  American  Federation  of 
Labor."  This  organization  was  purely  economic  in  its 
purposes.  It  was  an  imitation  of  the  English  trades 
union  movement.  It  regarded  employment  as  a  con- 
tract between  labor  and  capital.  It  did  not  have  any 
revolutionary  ideas  as  to  the  relations  between  the  two 
factors  in  production.  The  owner  of  labor  power  and 
the  owner  of  capital  were  in  its  eyes  each  possessed  of 
commodities  which  each  wanted  to  sell  on  the  best 
terms  possible.  The  matter  then  became  a  subject  for 
bargaining  and  the  term  "collective  bargaining"  has 
indeed  been  applied  to  these  united  efforts  on  the  part 
of  labor  and  capital  to  arrive  at  a  mutual  understand- 
ing. The  organization  was  by  crafts,  each  craft  having 
its  local  and  national  organization,  and  being,  in  a  great 
measure,  independent  of  other  crafts  and  depending 
for  success  upon  the  power  which  it  could  individually 
bring  to  bear  upon  the  capitalist.  Naturally  the  most 
highly  skilled  crafts  were  able  to  obtain  the  best  terms 
and  had  an  advantage  in  dealings  of  this  sort  and  these 
formed  what  was  called  both  in  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  an  "aristocracy"  of  labor.  These  craft 
divisions  were  favored  by  the  employing  class  as  they 
tended  to  keep  the  workers  apart  and  cultivated  differ- 
ences and  distinctions  within  the  ranks  of  labor.  Under 
the  old  gild  system,  when  the  economic  condition  was 
almost  static,  such  distinctions  might  have  survived 
and,  as  a  matter  of  fact  did  survive  but  under  the 
highly  fluid  state  of  labor  in  the  present  system,  where 
the  skilled  labor  of  to-day  becomes  the  unskilled  of 


THE  RISE  OF  THE   GREATER   CAPITALISM  137 

to-morrow,  they  are  simply  absurd.  The  result  was 
that  the  old  methods  of  the  strike  and  the  boycott  were 
again  and  again  resorted  to,  and  the  working  class  was 
driven,  by  its  method  of  fighting  into  minor  disturb- 
ances and  collisions  with  the  authorities  in  which  they 
had  only  their  bare  hands  to  oppose  to  the  weapons 
of  the  military.  The  capitalist  class  was  firmly  en- 
trenched in  the  economic  position  from  which  the 
forces  of  the  trades  union  were  unable  to  dislodge  it 
and,  in  addition,  the  capitalist  class  possessed  a  weapon 
in  politics  of  which  it  did  not  hesitate  to  make  use  and 
such  advantages  as  the  trades  unions  did  attain  were 
rendered  practically  valueless  by  means  of  a  hired  leg- 
islature and  a  dependent  judiciary. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  in  connection 
with  this  movement  was  the  blindness  of  the  trades 
union  leaders  to  the  value  of  the  political  weapon. 
The  movement  was,  as  we  have  said,  based  upon  the 
English  trades  union  movement  and  the  latter  had 
studiously  abstained  from  politics.  But  this  plan  of 
campaign  had  arisen  from  the  peculiar  conditions  in 
England.  The  defeat  of  the  Chartist  Movement,  which 
was  a  political  working  class  movement,  necessarily 
revolutionary  in  its  character,  and  based  upon  the  hy- 
pothesis of  a  physical  force  triumph  had  filled  the 
working  class  with  despair  of  obtaining  any  advantage 
by  political  effort.  They  had  therefore  fallen  back  on 
the  pure  and  simple  method  and  endeavored  to  accom- 
plish by  means  of  the  strike  and  boycott  what  they 
had  failed  to  gain  by  revolt.  Certain  peculiar  eco- 
nomic conditions  had  given  the  pure  and  simple  trades 
union  an  initial  advantage  in  Great  Britain  and  the 
fact  that  the  working  class  was  not  in  possession  of 


138        THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

• 

the  ballot  still  further  increased  the  energy  and  en- 
thusiasm which  they  showed  for  the  trades  union 
movement.  But  triumphant,  apparently,  as  the  British 
pure  and  simple  union  was,  it  carried  with  it  its  defects, 
and  as  soon  as  the  working  class  became  endowed  with 
the  franchise  the  agitation  for  political  working  class 
action  arose.  The  British  workingman  had  been 
obliged  to  accept  such  conditions  as  he  had  and  to 
make  the  best  of  them.  The  American  pure  and  sim- 
ple trades  unionist,  on  the  other  hand,  threw  away  the 
advantage  which  the  possession  of  the  ballot  gave 
him,  and  under  the  cry  of  "no  politics,"  bred  in  the 
unions  a  brood  of  the  most  loathesome  and  corrupt 
petty  politicians.  But  the  American  Federation  suc- 
ceded  the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  soon  rose  to  be  the 
most  important  labor  movement  in  the  country. 

An  agitation  for  an  eight  hours'  day  marked  the 
year  1886.  It  had  been  developing  for  some  time,  but 
reached  its  culmination  in  that  year.  In  connection 
with  that  eight  hour  day  agitation  we  get  the  affair 
of  the  Chicago  anarchists,  so-called.  The  eight  hours' 
movement  had  developed  a  very  pronounced  form  in 
Chicago.  At  one  of  the  meetings  a  bomb  was  thrown 
by  some  unknown  party  among  a  body  of  police  who 
were  dispersing  an  open  air  gathering.  A  number  of 
men  were  arrested  and  charged  with  complicity  in  the 
bomb  throwing.  Some  of  them  were  hanged,  others 
imprisoned.  It  is  admitted  that  these  men  were  lit- 
erally railroaded  to  the  scaffold  and  to  prison.  Seven 
years  afterward  a  governor  of  Illinois  examined  into 
the  manner  in  which  the  trial  had  been  conducted  and 
after  a  close  examination  of  the  testimony  and  the 
circumstances  connected  with  the  trial,  released  the 


THE  RISE  OF   THE  GREATER  CAPITALISM  139 

men  in  prison  and  expressed  his  conviction  that  the 
trial  had  been  unfair.  This  is  the  general  impression 
at  the  present  day  even  in  conservative  circles.  The 
press,  however,  worked  up  a  most  violent  prejudice 
against  the  men  throughout  the  whole  country  and 
there  is  little  question  that  the  whole  affair  had  a  very 
bad  effect  upon  the  labor  agitation  at  that  time  and 
for  some  considerable  time  afterwards.  It  may  also 
be  stated  that  it  had  a  distinct  tendency  to  interfere 
with  the  sympathy  which  a  certain  section  of  the 
American  working  class  was  beginning  to  have  with 
the  anarchist  movement. 

In  Europe  the  working  class  international  move- 
ment, under  the  name  of  the  "International,"  had  broken 
into  two  sections,  one  of  which  was  dominated  by 
socialistic  ideas  and  advocated  the  use  of  parliamentary 
means  in  the  futherance  of  the  interests  of  the  work- 
ing class  and  the  other  by  anarchistic  ideas.  The  an- 
archistic faction  refused  to  recognize  the  political 
weapon,  but  based  their  campaign  upon  the  use  of  the 
strike  and  boycott  and  physical  force.  Both  of  these 
factions  had  their  adherents  among  the  working  men 
of  this  country  and  prior  to  the  Chicago  affair,  the 
anarchist  propaganda  had  considerable  support.  In 
fact,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  methods  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  were  in  their  essence  anarchistic 
for  the  mere  element  of  physical  force  is  not  what  con- 
stitutes anarchism  but  the  refusal  to  employ  political 
action.  One  of  the  most  disgusting  features  of  the 
whole  Chicago  matter  was  the  inexcusable  and  pitiful 
cowardice  displayed  by  many  leaders  of  the  working 
class  as  exemplified  in  prominent  trades  unionists. 

The  socialist  wing  of  the  International  had  also  es- 


140         THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

tablished  an  agitation  and  propaganda  in  this  country 
and  before  the  close  of  this  period  had  entered  upon  a 
political  campaign.  Its  first  efforts  were  naturally 
feeble  and  gave  no  indication  of  the  power  which  was 
in  the  course  of  the  next  decade  to  be  manifested  by 
this  element.  But  weak,  as  it  was,  it  had  been  begun, 
and  the  United  States  as  a  new  capitalistic  country  was 
beginning  to  exhibit  the  same  political  as  well  as  in- 
dustrial phenomena  of  other  countries  in  which  the 
modern  system  was  prevalent. 

Thus  at  the  close  of  the  period  succeeding  the 
Civil  War,  we  find  that  the  capitalistic  class  had  thor- 
oughly entrenched  itself,  that  the  working  class  was 
playing  a  losing  game  and  was  not  receiving  anything 
like  a  proportionate  share  of  the  product  of  the  new  in- 
dustry, that  politics  and  law  were  corrupted  and  em- 
ployed in  the  service  of  the  new  capitalism  and  that 
the  working  class  was  beginning  to  have  some  glim- 
merings as  to  the  actual  condition  of  things  and  was 
slowly  awakening  to  a  recognition  of  the  class  war. 


CHAPTER  VII 

OLIGARCHY   AND   IMPERIALISM 

Following  the  period  just  described,  we  come  to 
another,  in  which  the  psychological  tendencies  of  the 
newly  developed,  but  speedily  omnipotent  commercial 
and  industrial  classes,  made  themselves  apparent.  Legis- 
lation, the  administration  of  justice,  and  national  policy 
very  soon  bore  witness  to  the  power  of  the  new  idea. 
The  old  faiths  which  had  suffered  grievously  in  the  early 
part  of  that  period  which  immediately  succeeded  the  Civil 
War  were  attacked  more  fiercely,  so  that  the  merest 
remnants  remained  of  that  vigorous  Americanism  which 
had  exercised  so  profound  an  influence  over  the  youth 
of  the  country  and  which  had  been  the  very  symbol  of 
individual  liberty  and  democracy  in  government.  Inter- 
nal politics  on  the  legislative  side  responded  rapidly  to 
the  new  tendencies  but  not  more  rapidly  than  did  the 
law  courts,  so  that  strange  and  hitherto  unheard  of  ap- 
plications of  ancient  legal  remedies  were  employed  in  a 
fashion  which  left  no  doubt  of  the  intention  of  the  jurists 
to  interpret  the  law  in  terms  of  the  new  conditions. 
Never  has  the  effect  of  the  influence  of  economic  facts 
upon  legislative  and  judicial  forms  been  more  evident. 
Just  as  the  industrial  development  in  this  country  pro- 
ceeded more  rapidly  than  in  others  by  virtue  of  the 
entire  newness  of  the  conditions  and  the  freedom  from 


141 


142         THE    ^ISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

artificial  restraints,  so  the  necessary  legislation  and  legal 
decisions  were  more  easily  obtained  here  than  elsewhere. 
The  possession  of  the  political  machinery  by  the  greater 
capitalists  and  the  dependence  of  the  judiciary  upon 
politics  gave  the  commercial  revolutionists  control  of 
the  avenues  of  expression.  The  capitalization  of  the 
press  and  its  employment  by  the  same  agencies  was  an- 
other very  important  factor  in  bringing  about  the  same 
result.  Practically  all  the  channels  through  which  force 
could  be  employed  were  in  the  hands  of  this  class  at  the 
beginning  of  this  period  and  the  ease  with  which  success 
was  achieved  tends  to  show  the  thoroughness  of  the 
preparations  which  had  been  made  to  render  it  complete. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  in  this  period  a  revolution 
was  accomplished  which,  for  scope  and  magnitude,  prob- 
ably transcends  any  revolution  of  which  we  have  knowl- 
edge. No  merely  political  revolutions  can  be  even  com- 
pared with  it.  The  industrial  revolution  which  in  the 
short  space  of  twenty-five  years  converted  England  from 
a  country  in  which  the  domestic  industry  was  dominant 
to  a  modern  machine-industry  community  is,  probably, 
unless  we  except  Japanese  development,  the  only  other 
instance  of  so  sudden  and  complete  a  change.  But  it 
took  many  years  for  Great  Britain  to  modify  her  politi- 
cal and  juristic  systems  sufficiently  to  render  them  the 
best  expressions  of  the  new  economic  realities,  whereas, 
it  required  but  a  very  short  time  to  convert  the  Senate 
into  a  body  recognized  as  the  supporter  of  the  commercial 
and  industrial  lords  and  to  make  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives but  a  large  committee  for  the  registering  of 
decrees  to  carry  out  the  mandates  of  the  same  masters. 
The  government  of  the  country  was  henceforward  to 
be  carried  on  in  the  name  of  those  interests  which  were 


OLIGARCHY   AND    IMPERIALISM  143 

sufficiently  powerful  to  set  the  machinery  in  motion. 
That  collectivism  which  follows  unavoidably  in  the  train 
of  concentration  of  industry  did  not  show  itself  as  a  col- 
lectivism supposedly  benefiting  the  whole  community. 
State  socialism  to  which  this  industrial  development  has 
given  so  great  an  impetus  on  the  continent  of  Europe 
made  but  little  headway  here.  Such  collectivism  as  there 
was  consisted  in  the  collectivism  of  a  class  against  so- 
ciety. The  great  capitalists  pooled  their  interests  and 
directed  their  united  force  to  a  campaign  of  public  plun- 
der. The  tariff  laws,  sufficiently  stringent  already  to 
make  the  United  States  conspicuous  throughout  the 
world  as  the  champion  of  excessive  duties,  were  made 
severe  and  comprehensive  to  a  degree  which  has  ren- 
dered them  practically  prohibitory.  The  exploitation  of 
the  country  fell  into  the  hands  of  fewer  and  fewer  great 
capitalistic  concerns,  and  its  growing  wealth  and  popu- 
lation made  it  an  ever  richer  field  for  the  predatory. 
And  when  the  amount  of  wealth  produced  under  the  new 
system  bade  fair  to  choke  the  channels  of  distribution  in 
this  country,  the  demands  of  the  manufacturers  and  com- 
mercialists  for  foreign  markets  brought  a  new  idea  into 
American  foreign  politics.  So  that  the  country  which  had 
been  hitherto  self  contained  and  which  had  framed  all  its 
foreign  policy  upon  the  notion  of  its  inviolabity  and  in- 
dependence and  its  freedom  from  the  embroilments  of 
foreign  powers,  leaped  into  the  arena  of  international 
strife,  and  in  a  few  weeks  added  an  empire  to  its  pos- 
sessions and  became  a  great  modern  imperial  power, 
having  subject  under  its  sway  so-called  inferior  peoples, 
who  could  never  in  the  very  nature  of  things  become 
citizens  of  the  Republic. 

This  new  period  began,  appropriately  enough,  with 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

a  crisis,  one  of  those  inevitable  breakdowns  which  serve, 
much  as  war  does,  to  clear  the  air  and  to  eliminate  num- 
bers of  the  unnecessary.  The  crisis  of  1893  displayed 
itself  in  the  first  place  as  a  financial  crisis,  though  it 
was  followed  by  an  industrial  collapse  which  showed 
plainly  that  unrestricted  competition  was  still  productive 
of  its  old  effects,  and  that  republican  institutions  and  a 
hight  tariff  afforded  no  security  against  those  maladies 
which  have  so  grievously  afflicted  the  peoples  of  all 
modern  countries. 

For  several  years  trade  had  been  dull.  A  depression 
had  succeeded  the  crisis  of  the  eighties.  This,  though  less 
acute  than  the  more  famous  crisis  of  1873,  had  still  affected 
the  industrial  system  badly,  and  the  expected  rally  had 
been  long  postponed.  A  Democratic  President  had  been 
elected,  but  no  improvement  having  manifested  itself  a 
Republican  revival  had  followed  and  this  again  having 
failed  to  achieve  the  impossible,  another  reaction  had 
taken  place  and  a  Democratic  president  again  occupied 
the  chair.  Things  had  been  going  amiss  in  Europe,  and 
Great  Britain  in  particular  was  feeling  the  ill  effects  of 
the  depression.  The  Argentine  Republic  and  South 
Africa  were  the  favorite  fields  for  investment.  But  the 
returns  had  proved  by  no  means  up  to  the  expectations 
of  investors,  and  firms  which  had  invested  heavily  in  se- 
curities in  these  countries  began  to  feel  the  strain.  In 
1890  the  firm  of  Baring  Brothers,  one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential in  the  financial  world,  could  not  make  headway 
and  succumbed.  There  was  a  panic,  then,  a  stiffening, 
due  chiefly  to  the  security  of  the  Bank  of  England,  and 
its  efforts  to  minimize  the  disaster,  and  the  worst  was 
tided  over.  But  the  effects  were  widespread  and  this 
country  felt  them  in  the  dislocation  of  business  and  gen- 


OLIGARCHY   AND   IMPERIALISM  145 

eral  distrust.  On  June  26th,  1893,  it  was  announced 
that  India  had  stopped  the  free  coinage  of  silver.  The 
effect  was  felt  at  once  in  the  silver-producing  states. 
Colorado  and  other  states  in  which  the  mining  of  silver 
was  an  important  industry  shut  down  their  mines,  and 
thousands  of  people  were  face  to  face  with  actual  want. 
Then  came  a  series  of  bank  failures,  particularly  in  the 
South  and  West.  The  degree  in  which  those  portions 
of  the  country  were  effected  appears  in  the  fact  that  out 
of  301  bank  suspensions,  ninety-three  per  cent  occurred 
in  them.  Distrust  was  general,  hoarding  set  in  on  a  large 
scale  and  recourse  was  had  to  clearing  house  certificates. 
Then,  the  worst  passed,  but  a  long  period  of  depression 
followed  marked  by  a  most  noticeable  falling  off  in  immi- 
gration, the  existence  of  unusually  large  numbers  of  un- 
employed, and  all  the  strange  psychological  and  political 
vagaries  which  mark  such  periods  of  economic  distur- 
bance. The  outcry  against  the  financiers,  which  had  made 
itself  heard  in  the  crisis  of  the  seventies,  became  louder, 
and  the  People's  party,  which  in  1892  had  polled  over 
a  million  votes  had  by  1896  persuaded  the  Democratic 
party  to  adopt  the  anti-gold  platform.  This  was  the  last 
great  battle  in  which  the  small  producers  and  the  debtor 
class  on  the  one  hand  were  brought  into  direct  conflict 
with  the  dominant  capitalism  and  the  money  lords.  The 
latter  relying  upon  their  industrial  vassals  who  could 
find  no  point  of  contact  between  themselves  and  the 
smaller  middle  class,  which  furnished  the  intellectual  and 
political  force  of  the  silver  movement,  defeated  the  silver 
forces,  and  the  now  thoroughly  victorious  greater  capi- 
talism was  able  thenceforward  to  pursue  its  course  with- 
out any  further  fear  of  disturbance  from  that  class  of 
debtors  and  small  producers.  Political  history  in  this 


146         THE   RISE   OF    THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

country  since  that  time  has  been  but  the  pursuit  of  the 
flying  relics  of  a  formerly  sufficiently  formidable  force 
and  the  strengthening  of  the  positions  occupied  by  the 
victors.  There  has  been  no  further  need  of  a  distinct 
campaign  against  the  power  of  the  middle  classes. 
Economic  events  have  proved  too  strong  for  them,  they 
have  no  longer  any  real  political  significance.  Such  po- 
litical and  juridical  action  as  has  been  required  has  been 
rather  directed  against  the  advances  of  a  more  per- 
manent and  dangerous  class,  the  proletarian. 

It  will  be  seen  therefore  that  the  economic  and  po- 
litical effects  of  this  crisis  were  not  substantially  differ- 
ent from  those  of  preceding  occurrences  of  a  similar 
nature.  If  they  were  more  obvious,  and  if  the  greater 
capitalism  was  able  to  take  more  complete  advantage  of 
the  situation  than  heretofore,  it  was  simply  because  the 
point  to  which  industrial  evolution  had  proceeded  had 
made  it  more  feasible  to  monopolize  its  advantages,  and, 
if  political  effects  were  more  apparent,  it  was  just  be- 
cause the  new  organization  of  industry  had  rendered  pos- 
sible the  more  complete  organization  of  political  power. 
The  effects  upon  the  community  at  large,  if  more  striking, 
were  similar  to  those  of  preceding  crises. 

Thus  the  elimination  of  numbers  of  middlemen  and 
small  producers  has  always  been  the  essential  character- 
istic result  of  industrial  disturbance.  On  the  other  hand 
the  reinforcement  of  the  working  class  by  those  better 
equipped  who  had  fallen  into  its  ranks  owing  to  the  ac- 
tion of  the  crisis  and  the  feeling  of  rebellion  engendered 
in  the  minds  of  numbers  of  the  working  class  by  their 
sufferings  and  privations  tended  more  and  more  to  the 
building  up  of  a  self-conscious  working  class  movement. 
Just  in  proportion  as  the  greater  capitalism  made  greater 


OLIGARCHY  AND   IMPERIALISM  147 

progress  than  heretofore  by  reason  of  the  crisis  of  1893, 
the  phenomenal  growth  in  power  of  the  proletarian  was, 
at  least,  equally  noticeable.  The  crisis  of  1873  produced 
an  active  working  class  movement,  that  of  1893  stimu- 
lated and  informed  it.  Defeated  economically  and  com- 
pelled to  submit  to  conditions  against  which  it  had  con- 
tended with  increasing  spirit,  its  wages  lowered,  its  or- 
ganisations much  depleted  and  in  some  cases  disrupted, 
it  still  kept  its  aim  before  it,  and  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  depression  was  ready  to  take  the  field  again  and  to 
enter  upon  a  more  vigorous  campaign  for  its  demands. 
The  working  class  is  the  one  constant  factor.  It  is  not 
possible  to  dispose  of  it.  The  crushing  of  its  members 
under  the  weight  of  exploitation  only  serves  to  amalga- 
mate its  forces  as  a  pebble  walk  is  solidified  by  tamping. 
Such  gains  as  it  makes  stimulate  its  ambitions,  awaken 
its  energies,  and  drive  it  to  seek  still  further  successes 
at  the  expense  of  its  natural  and  implacable  enemy.  The 
two  forces,  the  organized  capitalists  and  the  organized 
laborers  must  face  one  another  on  both  the  political  and 
economic  fields.  The  crisis  of  1893  made  the  lines  of 
the  respective  armies  more  distinct  and  showed  to  many 
of  those  who  had  not  hitherto  perceived  what  was  im- 
pending, the  real  social  and  political  significance  of  mod- 
ern industrial  life. 

,  This  period  was  marked  by  the  growth  of  a  new  form 
of  industrial  organization  which  had  had  a  very  important 
effect  upon  the  politics  and  commercial  enterprise  of  the 
nation  and  which  appears  destined  to  be  a  still  more 
important  factor  in  future.  This  phenomenon  is  classed 
under  the  general  name  of  "trusts"  and  although  much 
condemnation  has  been  directed  against  it,  it  appears  to 
be  as  simple  and  logical  a  development  of  industry  as 


148         THE   RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

any  of  the  other  forms  with  which  industrial  evolution 
has  made  us  familiar.  The  Standard  Oil  adopted  it  first 
by  the  device  of  combining  various  corporations  so  as  to 
form  one  monopoly  as  early  as  1882.  The  essential  and 
distinctive  quality  of  the  trust  consists  in  this — a  trus- 
teeship is  devised  in  such  a  way  that  the  organization  and 
concentration  of  the  powers  of  various  distinct  corpora- 
tions is  effected  without  impairing  the  individual  ex- 
istence of  the  separate  corporations.  This  may  be  con- 
sidered as  the  most  restricted  sense  of  the  trust.  Tes- 
timony as  to  the  spread  of  this  particular  form  of  organi- 
zation may  be  had  from  the  following  remarks  of  John 
Moody,  whose  "Truth  About  the  Trusts"  is  perhaps  the 
most  complete  and  reliable  work  upon  the  subject.  He 
says: 

"In  the  usage  of  to-day  the  term  'Trust'  is  applicable 
to  any  act,  agreement,  or  combination  believed  to  possess 
the  intention,  power  or  tendency  to  monopolize  business, 
interfere  with  trade,  fix  prices,  etc.  It  will  be  noted  that 
this  embraces  those  enterprises  which  are  popularly  be- 
lieved to  have  this  intent,  power  or  tendency,  and  not 
merely  those  which  have  by  demonstration  been  shown  to 
be  possessed  of  such  power. 

"By  this  definition  we  see  that  not  only  are  consoli- 
dations of  former  competing  plants  to  be  looked  upon  as 
Trusts,  but  all  large  businesses  which  possess  or  are  be- 
lieved to  possess  the  foregoing  characteristics  are  trusts, 
whether  made  up  of  one  plant  or  a  hundred,  and  whether 
actually  possessing  monopolistic  features  or  not.  Thus, 
franchise  corporations  and  groups  are  Trusts,  railroad 
aggregations  are  Trusts,  possessors  of  exclusive  powers 
or  privileges  of  any  sort,  as  well  as  mere  producers  on 
a  large  scale  must  be  looked  upon  as  Trusts.  If  there  is 


OLIGAQCHY  AND   IMPERIALISM  149 

any  qualification  at  all  in  the  public  mind  as  to  the  cor- 
rectness of  Mr.  Dodd's  definition,  it  is  merely  that  the 
thoroughgoing  trust  must  be  characterized  by  largeness. 
Very  small  corporations,  even  if  they  possess  monopolies 
are  not  popularly  called  Trusts." 

This  trust  phenomenon  is  really  a  product  of  econo- 
mic conditions  since  1898,  at  which  time  the  industrial 
depression  which  had  set  in  with  such  intensity  in  1893 
subsided,  and  a  period  of  buoyant  optimism  supervened, 
produced  by  a  succession  of  good  harvests  and  the  popu- 
lar enthusiasm  and  confidence  which  followed  upon  the 
termination  of  the  Spanish  War.  The  development  of 
railroad  industry  had,  up  to  this  time,  absorbed  the  bulk 
of  invested  capital,  but  the  development  and  practically 
complete  organization  of  the  railroad  system  had  closed 
this  avenue  for  investment  and  railroad  stocks  in  large 
quantities  at  low  prices  were  no  longer  available.  The 
field  for  the  investment  of  money,  released  by  the  feel- 
ing of  security  and  the  impetus  given  by  the  revival  of 
prosperity,  was  discovered  in  industrials,  and  the  ener- 
gies of  promoters  were  directed  to  the  organization  of 
industrial  enterprise  as  outlets  for  capital  seeking  in- 
vestment. The  Financial  Review  of  1900,  speaking  on 
this  point  says: 

"The  extreme  industrial  activity  engendered  a  feeling  of 
great  confidence,  very  propitious  to  the  creation  and  multiplica- 
tion of  new  industrial  enterprises.  Easy  money  in  the  early 
months  caused  by  a  congestion  of  currency  at  this  centre,  ma- 
terially aided  the  movement.  The  result  was  the  formation  and 
flotation  of  industrial  undertakings  of  enormous  magnitude  and 
in  unparallelled  numbers.  In  every  industry,  in  every  line  and 
branch  of  trade,  great  consolidations  and  amalgamations  were 
planned,  and  in  most  cases  carried  into  effect.  It  was  the  great 
opportunity  of  the  promoter  and  he  was  not  slow  to  avail  him- 


150        THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

self  of  it.  Seeing  in  any  given  trade  a  large  number  of  separate 
businesses  or  manufactories,  his  effort  was  to  merge  them  to- 
gether in  one  large  corporation,  insuring  partial  or  complete  con- 
trol and  giving  at  least  the  appearance  of  monopoly." 

This  tendency  to  the  amalgamation  of  industry  and 
the  formation  of  great  industrial  combinations  was  due 
as  much  to  a  recognition  of  the  deficiencies  of  the  com- 
petitive system  and  its  ill  effects  upon  the  producer  as 
to  a  desire  to  find  new  and  profitable  fields  for  invest- 
ment E.  S.  Meade  in  his  "Trust  Finance"  sums  up  the 
matter  very  clearly  in  the  following  paragraph : 

"All  things  considered,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why 
the  regime  of  free  competition  was  productive  of  manifold  hard- 
ships to  the  manufacturer.  Competition  might  be  considered  as 
the  life  of  trade,  but  at  the  close  of  the  last  industrial  de- 
pression it  was  regarded  as  the  death  of  profits.  It  was  highly 
desirable  from  the  manufacturer's  viewpoint  to  stop  or  at  least 
abate  this  struggle  which  benefited  nobody  save  the  consumer, 
*  *  *  The  producers  were  tired  of  working  for  the  public. 
They  desired  a  larger  profit  without  such  an  effort  to  get  it,  and 
they  wished  to  have  that  profit  available  for  distribution  and 
not  locked  up  in  a  plant  and  equipment.  In  1898  and  1899  the 
time  was  ripe  for  a  change.  Men  were  weary  of  competition  and 
the  era  of  combination  was  gladly  welcomed." 

But  while  the  organization  of  the  Trusts  made  un- 
doubtedly for  economic  advantage,  and  while  the  bal- 
ance was  unquestionably  in  favor  of  the  new  system, 
there  were  other  effects  which  were  very  disturbing. 
Thus  the  concentration  of  the  almost  incredibly  large 
masses  of  capital  rendered  the  existence  of  the  smaller 
firms  so  precarious  as  to  be  practically  hopeless,  and  the 
outcry  which  was  raised  by  the  sufferers  found  its  ex- 
pression in  jeremiads  in  the  press  and  in  a  helpless  po- 
litical indignation  which  exhausted  itself  in  the  cry, 
"Down  with  the  Trusts,"  but  which  was  futile  against 


OLIGARCHY   AXD   IMPERIALISM  151 

the  tremendous  financial  forces  ranged  on  tne  side  of 
the  new  organizations. 

The  extent  of  these  financial  forces  may  be  seen  from 
the  following  figures  revised  to  January  1st,  1904,  by 
Air.  Moody  in  the  work  already  referred  to.  It  must  be 
observed  that  since  that  time  the  organization  has  pro- 
ceeded even  more  rapidly  and  the  powers  of  the  trust 
magnate  have  been  correspondingly  increased.  The 
Trusts  of  which  Mr.  Moody  takes  account  are  as  fol- 
lows: 318  important  industrial  trusts  controlling  ap- 
proximately 5,288  plants  have  a  capitalization  of  $7,- 
246,342,533;  111  important  franchise  trusts,  owning 
1,336  plants,  have  a  total  capitalization  of  $3^735,456,071 ; 
great  steam  railroad  groups,  owning  790  plants,  have  a 
total  capitalization  of  $9,017,086,907,  and  allied  steam 
railroad  systems,  having  250  plants  and  a  capitalized 
value  of  $380,277,000.  The  total  value  of  all  the  trusts 
at  the  time  at  which  the  computation  was  made  was  $20,- 
379,162,511.00.  (Now  estimated  at  30  billions.) 

The  rapid  organization  of  such  colossal  industrial 
enterprises  could  not  fail  to  have  a  most  profound  effect 
upon  all  departments  of  national  life,  and  the  corrupting 
power  of  great  sums  of  money  used  without  stint  or 
compunction  by  those  who  had  immediate  pecuniary 
interests  to  serve  was  soon  made  evident.  An  era  of 
corruption  and  debauchery  set  in  much  as  had  occurred 
subsequent  to  the  Civil  War,  and  the  judiciary  and  the 
legislatures  were  exposed  to  the  full  force  of  the  attack 
of  corporate  wealth.  This  descent  of  the  trust  organ- 
izers and  controllers  into  politics  was  followed  by  re- 
sults which  do  not  reflect  any  credit  upon  the  honesty 
and  stability  of  legislative  and  judicial  bodies  in  demo- 
cratic communities  where  the  standards  are  almost  ex- 


THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 


clusively  money  standards,  and  where  neither  the  social 
position  nor  the  financial  standing  of  those  who  are 
charged  with  the  control  of  affairs  is  sufficient  to  sup- 
port them  against  temptation.  The  history  of  this  pe- 
riod of  prosperity  is  a  long  tale  of  official  misconduct 
in  almost  every  branch  of  governmental  activity,  mu- 
nicipal, state  and  national.  An  era  of  what  is  simply 
and  cynically  termed  "graft"  set  in  and  the  press  teemed 
with  revelations  of  official  iniquity.  Even  the  ordinary 
magazines  made  a  special  point  of  detailing  the  opera- 
tions by  which  the  municipalities  were  robbed  of  their 
utilities,  and  showed  to  their  own  financial  advantage 
and  the  interest  of  their  purchasers  the  methods  em- 
ployed by  industrial  organizers  in  their  efforts  to  make 
their  organizations  supreme.  These  revelations,  while 
stimulating  occasional  outbursts  of  indignation  and  fur- 
nishing professors,  clergymen  and  severely  sober  jour- 
nals with  opportunities  for  rhetorical  and  high  flown 
denunciation,  produced  but  little  effect  upon  the  commu- 
nity at  large.  They  were  regarded  as  natural  and  una- 
voidable concomitants  of  the  system,  and,  in  the  general 
prosperity,  were  contemplated  with  equanimity.  Now 
and  again,  an  unusually  bold  piece  of  villainy  would 
create  a  sensation,  but,  if  the  feelings  engendered  by 
such  occurrences  were  analyzed,  it  would  probably  be 
discovered  that  admiration  of  the  powers  of  the  success- 
ful promoter  was  at  least  as  marked  as  indignation  against 
a  public  wrong. 

The  same  rampant  speculation  as  had  marked  earlier 
experiments  in  economic  organization,  the  same  wilful 
lack  of  foresight,  the  same  criminal  misstatement  of 
the  purposes  and  possibilities  of  new  enterprises,  mani- 
fested themselves.  Plants  were  bought  up  at  ridiculously 


OLIGARCHY   AND    IMPERIALISM  153 

high  prices  or  enormous  sums  were  expended  upon  the 
destruction  of  concerns  which  refused  to  enter  the  com- 
binations. Inflation  and  the  watering  of  stocks  served 
to  conceal  the  amounts  of  the  profits  made  by  these 
means  and  many  of  the  new  concerns  rested  upon  the 
flimsiest  and  least  substantial  of  foundations.  But  in 
spite  of  many  sinister  forebodings  the  prosperity  which 
had  begun  with  the  Spanish  War  persisted.  The  suc- 
cession of  good  harvests  and  the  movement  of  money 
tended  to  keep  confidence  and  prices  high.  The  latter 
indeed  rose  so  that  the  cost  of  living  was  very  materi- 
ally increased,  and  the  purchasing  power  of  the  better 
paid  working  class  was  in  reality  little  greater  if,  in- 
deed, it  was  in  some  cases  as  great,  as  it  had  been  during 
the  period  of  depression.  But  work  was  fairly  constant, 
and  as  wages  came  in  with  regularity  there  was  little 
grumbling.  The  Republican  party,  the  natural  cham- 
pion of  the  new  industrial  movement,  held  its  place  in 
the  preferences  of  the  artisan  class  and  the  second  at- 
tempt of  W.  J.  Bryan,  the  candidate  of  the  united  Demo- 
cratic and  Populist  elements  to  gain  the  presidency  was 
repulsed  more  severely  than  its  predecessor.  An  out- 
break of  war  in  South  Africa  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  Boer  Republics  still  further  stimulated  the  demand 
for  staple  commodities,  and  gave  an  increasing  impetus 
to  American  trade.  To  all  appearances  the  country  was 
entirely  prosperous,  yet  its  industrial  and  financial  in- 
stitutions were  experiencing  a  series  of  convulsions,  and 
the  entire  system  was  being  modified,  indeed  transformed. 
The  new  industries  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  diminishing 
group  of  men  who  exercised  an  increasing  amount  of 
power,  the  oligarchy  which  had  been  foreshadowed  even 
before  1893,  was  fast  being  realized,  and  had  become 


154        THE  RISE   OF  THE  AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

an  accomplished  fact.  Henceforward  the  political  ten- 
dencies of  governmental  centralization  were  to  be  more 
strongly  marked  than  hitherto.  The  individualism  of 
the  state  system  began  to  be  a  serious  obstacle  in  the 
path  of  political  and  economic  progress,  and  it  became 
only  a  question  of  time  when  the  more  complete  com- 
mercial and  industrial  organization  would  be  mirrored 
in  a  more  complete  political  organization.  The  centrali- 
zation of  industry  must  necessarily  find  an  expression 
in  the  centralization  of  governmental  power.  The  ques- 
tion thereupon  arose,  at  least  by  inference,  as  to  which 
of  the  governmental  organs  was  to  be  the  representa- 
tive of  this  centralization.  There  are  two  departments 
of  the  government,  each  capable  of  fulfilling  that  func- 
tion. The  senate  by  its  limited  numbers,  its  recognized 
role  as  the  representative  of  the  power  of  organized 
wealth,  and  its  vast  political  influence  might  serve  as  an 
active  executive  committee  of  the  economically  powerful ; 
or  the  President  by  virtue  of  his  position  as  the  nominal 
head  of  the  State  might  act  in  the  same  capacity.  So 
there  was  outlined  a  struggle  between  the  President  and 
the  Senate  which  has  already  shown  signs  of  increasing 
intensity,  and  which  may  conceivably,  within  a  very 
short  period  develop  into  the  most  important  incident  in 
the  unfolding  of  American  political  history.  The  in- 
congruity between  a  closely  knit  and  highly  organized 
economic  system  and  a  loosely  connected  bundle  of  indi- 
vidual states,  any  one  of  which  may  at  any  time  seriously 
hamper  and  interfere  with  the  economic  organization, 
is  so  obvious  that  the  permanence  of  the  system  cannot 
be  seriously  considered.  The  difficulty  of  course  lies  in 
so  arranging  the  power  of  the  units  that  the  national 
economic  system  is  not  interfered  with.  But  this  be- 


OLIGARCHY   AND   IMPERIALISM  155 

comes  increasingly  intricate  in  proportion  as  the  develop- 
ment of  industry  transcends  the  limits  of  the  individual 
states,  and  great  enterprises  come  into  existence  whose 
ramifications  and  the  extent  of  whose  interests  bring 
them  into  contact  with  the  state  legislatures  at  so  many 
points.  All  sorts  of  impediments  have  arisen,  therefore, 
to  the  development  of  the  greater  industry,  but  -ft,  with 
a  confidence  born  of  security,  has  succeeded  in  using  even 
these  factors  in  its  service,  and  by  a  discreet  use  of  cor- 
ruption funds  ever  increases  its  hold  upon  the  various 
political  systems  of  the  individual  states.  This  method 
is  however  costly,  uncertain,  and  unsatisfactory,  and  there- 
fore the  cry  for  federal  control  arises,  or  for  the  federal 
supervision  of  transportation  and  other  industries  which 
overlap  diverse  sections  of  the  community.  Such  "con- 
trol" is  under  present  circumstances  a  mere  euphemism, 
for  the  economic  forces  are  so  far  in  control  of  the  po- 
litical that  any  claim  on  the  part  of  the  federal  executive 
or  the  federal  judiciary  to  exercise  a  controlling  influ- 
ence over  its  master  savors  rather  of  opera  bouffe  than 
of  reality.  It  cannot  be  said  that  any  of  the  measures 
which  have  been  supposed  to  exercise  a  deterrent  influ- 
ence upon  the  growth  of  economic  organizations  or  to 
supervise  their  actions  has  been  able  to  effect  what  was 
expected  of  it.  Economic  force  is  more  powerful  than 
legal  enactment,  and  economic  force  lies  unmistakably 
on  the  side  of  the  industrial  oligarchy. 

An  incident  in  the  course  of  the  development  of  this 
greater  industry  has  been  the  establishment  of  a  strong 
foreign  policy,  and  the  acquisition  of  territory  outside 
and  beyond  the  former  limits  of  the  country.  The  rap- 
idly developing  industry,  the  greater  mutual  dependence 
of  the  powers  owing  to  the  ramifications  of  business  re- 


156         THE    RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

lations,  and  the  jealousies  and  opportunities  for  strife 
engendered  by  the  clash  of  the  interests  of  the  dominant 
national  capitalists  made  it  imperative  upon  the  govern- 
ment of  this  country  that  it  should  have  greater  influ- 
ence with  foreign  powers,  and  this,  of  necessity,  rendered 
the  construction  of  a  sufficiently  formidable  navy  essen- 
tial. The  idea  of  a  strong  navy  which  would  be  em- 
ployed outside  the  country  met  with  much  opposition 
from  those  Americans  who  still  maintained  the  inde- 
pendence of  this  country  of  foreign  embroilments,  but 
a  dispute  with  Great  Britain  with  respect  to  the  conduct 
of  that  power  in  Venezuela  furnished  an  admirable  ar- 
gument to  the  advocates  of  the  greater  navy  policy.  The 
navy  was  needed  to  uphold  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and 
is  not  the  Monroe  Doctrine  as  essentially  American  as 
free  speech,  a  free  press  and  liberty  of  contract?  So 
the  building  of  the  new  navy  proceeded,  and  a  new 
and  very  lucrative  industry  was  founded  for  the  private 
capitalists  who  built  the  ships  on  contract  and  caballed, 
intrigued,  and  corrupted  to  obtain  these  contracts  on  the 
best  terms  possible.  The  profits  on  the  building  of  the 
navy  were  absorbed  by  private  firms.  The  opportunity  of 
creating  a  great  national  shipbuilding  plant  was  lost, 
and  the  country  became  dependent  for  its  sole  effective 
offensive  arm  upon  a  few  great  firms  which  in  their 
turn  were  dependent  upon  or  interested  in  the  power- 
ful steel  interests.  It  must  be  remarked  that  the  de- 
velopment of  the  steel  industry  and  the  organization 
of  that  industry  which  rendered  possible  the  produc- 
tion of  cheap  steel  were  necessary  conditions  prece- 
dent to  the  building  up  of  the  new  navy  and  hence 
in  the  last  instance  the  national  navy  became  a  product 
of  and  dependent  upon  a  small  but  exceedingly  pow- 


OLIGARCHY  AND  IMPERIALISM  157 

erful  group  of  capitalists,  who  were  now  practically 
compelled  to  look  for  foreign  markets  for  their  sur- 
plus products.  The  acquisition  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  gave  these  capitalists  an  immediate  interest  in 
affairs  in  the  Orient  which  was  now,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Japan,  showing  signs  of  an  awakening  and 
promised  to  be  a  fine  field  for  commercial  exploitation. 
A  war  between  Japan  and  China,,  in  the  settlement  of 
which  the  United  States  took  an  active  part,  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  rising  against  foreigners  in  China  and  by 
massacre  and  pillage  at  the  hands  of  a  certain  sect  of 
fanatics  termed  "Boxers."  This  rising  led  to  the  ac- 
tive interference  of  the  leading  western  powers  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  peace,  and  the  United  States 
co-operated  with  these  powers  in  the  employment  of 
troops  in  the  land  of  another  people  thousands  of 
miles  away.  Since  that  time  difficulties  with  outside 
foreign  powers  have  been  not  infrequent.  Turkey, 
Germany,  San  Domingo  and  Morocco  have  all 
had  distputes  with  this  country.  In  the  opinion  of  the 
governments  of  more  than  one  European  country  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  has  been  employed  as  a  means  of 
aggression  rather  than  as  a  protection  of  the  minor 
American  nationalities  against  European  attack.  How- 
ever, the  entry  of  the  United  States  into  the  group  of 
great  nationalities,  whose  commercialists  and  manu- 
facturers are  engaged  in  active  competition  for  the 
possession  of  the  world's  markets,  is  now  an  assured 
fact.  The  demand  for  a  stronger  navy  still  continues 
and  the  demand  for  a  greater  army  to  keep  pace  with 
the  navy  is  made  with  such  insistence.  The  mili- 
tary resources  should,  it  is  constantly  urged,  be  made 
to  represent  at  least  some  reasonable  proportion  to 


158        THE   RISE   OF  THE  AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

the  financial  and  commercial  resources  of  the  country. 
This  actual  and  prospective  increase  in  military  power 
is  all  the  more  conspicuous  from  the  fact  that  there  is 
not  the  slightest  danger  of  any  attack  being  made 
upon  the  soil  by  an  external  enemy.  Such  increase  is 
in  pursuit  of  a  policy  of  extending  American  commerce 
by  armed  force  where  it  is  required.  There  are  signs 
also  that  the  same  increase  in  the  military  forces  may 
be  directed  against  the  possibility  of  civil  discord  aris- 
ing from  the  eternal  labor  troubles.  A  new  measure 
of  Congress  making  all  able  bodied  citizens  ipso  facto 
members  of  the  militia  would  appear  to  support  this 
idea  and  the  well  known  dislike  and  denunciation  of 
the  militia  by  the  trades  unions  tend  to  point  the  same 
moral.  At  all  events,  under  the  new  commercial  and 
industrial  oligarchy,  the  military  resources  of  the  coun- 
try have  been  unquestionably  strengthened  and  the 
tendency  to-  invade  what  were  formerly  regarded  as 
foreign  spheres  of  influence  has  been  more  strongly 
marked.  There  is  a  striking  enthusiasm  for  what  is 
popularly  termed  recognition  of  American  influence 
abroad,  in  other  words  for  that  importance  in  interna- 
tional affairs  which  is  called  "prestige"  among  the  Eu- 
ropean powers  and  which  rests  fundamentally  upon 
armed  force. 

There  is  a  still  more  evident  growth  of  the  idea 
that  the  chief  object  of  American  foreign  policy  is  to 
secure  the  best  markets  for  American  products  and  to 
advance  the  interests  of  industrial  and  financial  mag- 
nates. All  of  these  phenomena  point  to  the  influence 
of  the  trader  and  manufacturer  in  politics  and  show 
that  the  mainsprings  of  the  international  policy  of 
the  United  States  are  to  be  sought  in  the  interests  of 


OLIGARCHY   AND   IMPERIALISM  159 

the  greater  capitalism.  The  trust  has  succeeded  in 
establishing  itself  directly  in  the  Department  of  State. 
The  pressure  of  the  commodity  ever  drives  its  makers 
to  find  new  fields  for  its  disposal.  This  is  the  essen- 
tial fact  of  political  and  social  life  in  the  United  States. 
The  proprietors  of  commodities  find  themselves  pos- 
sessed of  more  than  they  can  get  the  full  benefit  of 
under  the  social  conditions  of  a  democratic  republic, 
and  hence  they  seek  alliances  in  communities  where 
ostentation  and  social  prestige  bring  more  immediate 
advantages.  They  are  dragged  socially  and  econom- 
ically into  the  current  of  international  politics,  the 
great  game  in  which  rank  and  tradition  are  such  im- 
portant factors.  They  take  their  vast  wealth  into  Eu- 
ropean society,  acquiring  thereby  social  importance, 
and  make  conections  which  render  the  country  they 
represent  a  world-power.  The  international  impor- 
tance of  the  American  wealthy  class  rests  not  only 
upon  their  ownership  of  actual  wealth,  but  upon 
their  additional  control  of  the  armed  resources  of  the  coun- 
try. Just  as  the  new  oligarchy  has  succeeded  in  fasten- 
ing its  grip  upon  the  material  resources  of  the  country 
and  hence  upon  the  political  power  it  has  grown  pro- 
portionately in  influence  abroad.  The  tribute  rendered 
to  the  power  of  the  United  States  by  the  foreign  press 
and  potentates  is  in  reality  the  recognition  on  the  part 
of  the  economically  and  politically  powerful  in  Europe 
of  the  wealth  and  political  power  in  the  United  States 
of  those  who  belong  to  the  same  class  as  themselves. 
It  cannot  be  forgotten,  moreover,  that  the  country  by 
its  rapid  development  of  its  wealth  producing  re- 
sources no  longer  occupies  the  subordinate  economic 
position  which  it  once  held.  It  is  no  longer  dependent 


-1GO         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

upon  capital  from  the  outside.  The  growth  of  the 
syndicates  in  strength  and  influence  has  rendered  the 
funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  lords  of  finance  much  more 
accessible  than  hitherto.  The  preponderance  of  wealth 
gives  this  government  a  growing  influence  which  is 
only  prevented  from  making  itself  still  more  apparent 
by  the  lack  of  organization  of  its  military  resources 
upon  anything  like  the  same  scale  as  has  been  accom- 
plished in  European  countries.  How  far  this  military 
organization  will  be  discovered  to  be  necessary  is  a 
question  at  once  suggested  by  the  occupation  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  whose  proximity  to  Asia  and  con- 
sequently to  the  very  center  of  international  rivalry 
has  drawn  the  United  States  willy  nilly  into  the  strug- 
gles of  the  Powers.  That  the  commercial  interests  of 
this  country  are  estimated  to  be  very  closely  bound  up 
with  the  development  of  the  Orient  is  obvious  from 
the  anxiety  displayed  by  the  government  with  refer- 
ence to  interference  in  the  Chinese  troubles,  in  spite  of 
the  denunciations  of  those  American  statesmen  and 
journalists  who  regarded  the  movement  as  being  on 
the  one  hand  a  departure  from  traditional  policy  and 
on  the  other  as  involving  possibilities  which  it  would 
be  the  part  of  the  discreet  to  avoid. 

The  crisis  of  1893  produced  strange  psychological 
aberrations  in  certain  sections  of  the  working  class  as 
well  as  in  that  portion  of  the  debtor  and  farming  class 
which  saw  in  free  silver  and  the  populist  platform  the 
solution  of  their  troubles.  The  latter  propaganda  was 
attended  with  a  fanatical  devotion  as  unusual  as  it  was 
ridiculous.  A  sort  of  semi-religious,  semi-hysterical 
socialism  not  unlike  that  which  had  manifested  itself 
on  the  continent  of  Europe,  in  France  particularly,  in 


OLIGARCH-Y  AND  IMPERIALISM  161 

the  early  forties  made  itself  evident,  and  the  "Burning 
Words"  of  Lammenais  were  re-echoed  more  or  less 
feebly,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  by  impassioned  ad- 
vocates of  the  new  doctrine.  But  beside  the  mort- 
gaged farmers,  there  was  a  great  mass  of  unemployed 
which  suffered  privation  owing  to  the  dislocation  of 
trade.  Impatience  with  their  lot  grew  more  and  more 
marked  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  West,  whose 
frontier  life  had  made  them  more  disinclined  to  sub- 
mission than  their  eastern  fellows.  The  attacks  of  the 
free  silver  preachers  had  impressed  upon  the  popular 
imagination  that  the  government  was  to  blame.  There- 
fore they  determined  to  display  their  poverty  to  the 
government.  Hence  arose  the  memorable  exodus  from 
the  West  to  the  East  which  was  popularly  known 
as  the  march  of  Coxey's  army.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
there  were  three  such  armies  presided  over  respect- 
ively by  Coxey,  Kelly  and  Fry.  On  their  march  East 
they  behaved,  on  the  whole,  with  considerable  restraint 
although  incidents  of  violence  and  the  forcible  seizure 
of  trains  were  not  absent.  It  is  testimony,  however, 
to  the  general  good  faith  of  the  major  portion  of  this 
army  that  whenever  work  presented  itself  it  was 
greedily  seized  by  its  members,  and  only  a  tatterde- 
malion remnant  ever  reached  Washington.  As  a  dra- 
matic exhibition  of  the  poverty  of  the  unemployed  it 
was  a  complete  failure,  and  can  only  be  considered 
as  an  example  of  the  vagaries  which  haunt  men's 
minds  in  times  of  economic  stress,  a  species  of  hys- 
teria produced  by  their  desperate  circumstances,  and 
liable,  under  extreme  conditions,  to  produce  strange 
and  even  terrible  results.  In  some  respects  the  march 
of  these  western  unemployed  will  bear  comparison 


162         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

with  the  famous  march  of  the  Marseillais,  the  cir- 
cumstances alone  were  different.  There  was  the  same 
fanaticism,  the  same  ignorance  of  actual  conditions, 
the  same  fiery  impatience.  It  is  interesting  at  least  to 
observe  the  marked  independence  of  the  western  la- 
borer, for  this  is  a  factor  which  must  certainly  be  taken 
into  consideration,  in  any  estimate  of  the  positive 
fighting  qualities  of  the  American  proletariat. 

A  much  more  important  event  was  the  American 
Railway  Union  Strike  of  1894.  Eugene  V.  Debs  had  or- 
ganized this  union  in  1893.  It  was  intended  to  off- 
set the  use  of  the  blacklist  by  the  railway  managers 
who  were  said.,  and  in  fact,  at  a  subsequent  inquiry  were 
shown,  to  have  taken  concerted  measures  to  prevent 
obnoxious  workingmen  from  obtaining  employment. 
The  Railway  Union  was  intended  to  embrace  all 
classes  of  railway  workers,  and  probably  would  have 
succeeded  in  forming  what  is  known  as  an  industrial 
union  of  the  railroad  employes  had  time  been  afforded 
for  complete  organization  but,  as  events  turned  out,  it 
early  became  involved  in  a  strike  of  very  great  impor- 
tance. This  strike  had  its  origin  in  a  dispute  which 
was  connected  only  indirectly  with  the  railroad  industry. 
The  Pullman  company,  which  had  made  what  was  re- 
puted to  be  a  model  town  for  its  workmen,  had  a  contro- 
versy with  the  latter  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  had  re- 
duced wages  twenty  per  cent  and  had  adopted  meth- 
ods of  management  which  were  regarded  by  the  men 
as  high  handed  and  intolerable.  A  committee  waited 
upon  the  company  and  demanded  that  the  old  scale 
of  wages  be  restored,  whereupon  the  members  of  this 
committee  were  discharged  by  the  Pullman  Company. 
Four  thousand  of  the  Pullman  employes  were  mem- 


OLIGARCHY   AND   IMPERIALISM  163 

bers  of  the  American  Railway  Union  and  this  body 
took  up  the  cause  of  these  men  and  required  that  the 
Pullman  Company  should  arbitrate  its  differences  with 
the  men.  The  Pullman  Company  replied  that  there 
was  nothing  to  arbitrate  and  the  American  Railway 
Union  decided  that  its  members  should  not  handle  any 
trains  to  which  Pullman  cars  were  attached.  The  strike 
which  followed  was  in  the  beginning  completely  suc- 
cessful. At  the  end  of  five  days  all  the  roads  running 
out  of  Chicago  were  at  a  standstill.  This  result  was 
accomplished  without  violence  and  by  absolutely 
peaceful  means,  very  strict  orders  having  been  issued 
at  the  beginning  of  the  strike  against  illegal  conduct 
on  the  part  of  the  men.  Then  all  at  once  disorder 
broke  out.  The  city  of  Chicago  was  full  of  rough  and 
desperate  characters  whom  the  depression  of  trade 
had  deprived  of  occupation,  and  these  men  were  ready 
to  take  part  in  any  disturbance.  The  beginning  of 
rioting  has  been  attributed  to  the  Railway  Man- 
agers' Association.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  fix  the 
blame,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  could  easily 
have  been  prevented  by  the  exercise  or  ordinary  po- 
lice precautions.  Obstruction  of  the  mails  followed 
and  the  fact  that  the  Federal  government  would  have 
to  interfere  to  secure  the  transportation  of  its  mails 
became  evident.  Then  the  suggestion  was  made  that 
the  Federal  courts  be  applied  to  for  the  issuance  of  a 
\vrit  of  injunction.  This  process  was  to  take  the  place 
of  regular  criminal  proceedings  against  the  perpetra- 
tors of  unlawful  acts.  President  Cleveland  ordered 
Federal  troops  to  proceed  to  Chicago  in  spite  of  the 
protest  of  the  Governor  of  Illinois,  who  declared  him- 
self perfectly  competent  to  maintain  order  within  his 


164        THE    RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

jurisdiction.  The  troops  were  sent  under  the  law  of 
April,  1871,  the  portion  of  the  law  upon  which  Presi- 
dent Cleveland  relied  being  as  follows :  "In  all  cases 
where  insurrection,  domestic  violence,  ....  or 
conspiracies  in  any  state  shall  so  obstruct  or  hinder 
the  execution  of  the  laws  thereof  or  of  the  United 
States,  ....  or  wherever  such  insurrection,  vio- 
lence or  conspiracy  shall  oppose  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  or  the  due  execution  thereof,  ....  it 
shall  be  lawful  for  the  President,  and  it  shall  be  his 
duty  to  take  such  measures  by  the  employment  of  the 
land  or  naval  forces  of  the  United  States  .... 
as  he  may  deem  necessary  for  the  suppression  of  such 
insurrection."  Under  the  circumstances,  there  can  be 
little  question  with  respect  to  the  technically  correct 
position  of  President  Cleveland.  If  the  mails  were 
interfered  with  their  uninterrupted  transit  must  be  se- 
cured. The  real  malefactors,  who  had  instigated  the 
the  mischief,  and  who  had  in  all  probability  directly 
provoked  the  disorder  reaped  the  benefit  of  their 
schemes  and  the  forces  of  the  Federal  government 
were  henceforward  employed  in  crushing  the  strike  in 
the  interests  of  the  employing  class  and  the  dominant 
oligarchy. 

The  success  of  such  a  formidable  rising  of  the 
working  class,  particularly  in  the  unsatisfactory  con- 
dition of  trade  and  the  general  disarrangement  of 
financial  affairs,  could  not  have  failed  to  embolden 
the  restless  proletariat.  In  the  West,  at  all  events, 
where  the  strike  had  its  inception,  and  where  the 
masses  may  be  said  to  have  been  actively  sympa- 
thetic wtih  the  strikers  the  results  of  a  successful 
strike  might  easily  have  been  detrimental  to  the  grow- 


OLIGARCHY   AND   IMPERIALISM  165 

ing  greater  capitalism.  It  was  therefore  very  neces- 
sary in  the  eyes  of  the  authorities  that  the  strike 
should  be  put  down.  Besides,  the  intervention  of  the 
Federal  government  in  such  matters  was  distinctly  in 
line  with  the  development  of  political  and  industrial 
tendencies  as  they  have  been  displayed  in  the  course 
of  the  history  of  the  United  States.  It  showed  the 
intention  of  the  oligarchy  to  concentrate  its  political 
and  military  resources  for  the  defense  and  advance- 
ment of  its  interests;  it  also  showed  the  intention  of 
the  government  to  employ  the  armed  forces  in  the  de- 
fense of  the  employing  classes  and  proved  that  the 
governing  class  thoroughly  appreciated  the  approach- 
ing class-war  and  was  ready  to  resort  to  the  final 
measures  pursued  by  the  class  in  power  to  perpetuate 
that  power.  The  fact  that  unusual  measures  were 
taken  by  the  dominant  class  and  its  instrument,  the 
government,  shows  that  the  conditions  were  recog- 
nized as  unusual  and  that  the  strike  of  the  American 
Railway  Union  was  regarded  as  exceptional  both  in 
the  scope  of  its  operations  and  the  possibilities  which 
might  flow  from  it.  It  is  noticeable  moreover  that  the 
troops  dispatched  upon  the  plea  that  the  mails  were 
being  interfered  with,  were  sent  to  the  stockyards  dis-  \ 
tricts,  which  places,  though  undoubtedly  interesting^ 
are  not  supposed  to  be  a  rendezvous  for  mail  cars.  It 
it  noticeable  also,  as  showing  the  dictinctly  class  trend 
of  the  government  action,  that  during  the  Pullman 
strike,  President  Cleveland  selected  as  special  counsel 
for  the  government  Mr.  Edwin  Walker,  the  general 
counsel  for  the  General  Managers'  Association,  rep- 
resenting twenty-four  railways,  which,  according  to 
Mr.  Henry  George,  Jr.,  were  being  operated  "in  utter 


166         THE   RISE   OF   THE  AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

'defiance  of  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Law."  But  an 
even  more  unjustifiable  action  than  the  use  of  the  mil- 
itary is  to  be  found  in  the  novel  and  peculiar  use  of 
the  injunction,  a  purely  equitable  remedy,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  putting  down  strikes.  On  July  10th  Debs  was 
arrested  on  the  charge  of  obstructing  the  mails  and 
interfering  with  interstate  commerce.  The  case  was 
never  brought  before  a  jury.  The  Federal  court,  how- 
ever, employed  the  injunction.  It  issued  what  is  known 
as  an  "omnibus"  restraining  order,  in  which  Debs  and 
others  were  specifically  named  and  "all  persons."  This 
restraining  order  was  served  personally  on  some  of  the 
defendants  and  a  general  notice  given  by  reading  the 
order  to  a  crowd  of  strikers  and  by  posting  copies  of  it 
on  freight  cars  and  telegraph  poles.  Debs  was  ar- 
rested for  contempt  of  this  order  and  sentenced  to  im- 
prisonment for  six  months.  Habeas  Corpus  proceed- 
ings were  instituted  in  the  Supreme  Court  in  which 
the  plea  was  made  that  the  equity  court  had  no  right 
to  issue  an  injunction  which  would  deprive  the  accused 
of  the  right  to  trial  by  jury.  The  Supreme  Court, 
however,  upheld  the  decision  of  the  Circuit  Court. 
The  value  of  this  decision  was  speedily  seen  by  those 
who  were  occupied  in  attending  to  the  interests  of  the 
greater  capitalists  and  the  so-called  "blanket  injunc- 
tion" became  quite  a  familiar  concomitant  of  labor  dis- 
putes. It  will  be  observed  that  the  Federal  courts 
have  been  most  frequently  appealed  to  in  all  of  these 
cases.  The  Federal  judiciary  has  in  fact  become  the 
most  effective  instrument  not  only  for  interpreting  the 
law  in  favor  of  the  great  corporations,  but  also,  as  in 
this  instance,  for  manufacturing  law  in  their  special 
behoof.  What  was  done  in  Chicago  in  1894  was  dupli- 


OLIGARCHY  AND   IMPERIALISM  1(>7 

cated  in  the  Coeur  d'Alene  district  of  Idaho  in  1899. 
In  the  course  of  industrial  disturbances  in  this  district 
a  concentrator  mill  was  blown  up.  It  was  charged 
that  this  was  the  work  of  some  person  or  persons  on 
the  union  side  of  the  conflict.  No  proof  of  this,  how- 
ever, has  so  far  been  forthcoming.  The  fact  that  the 
Idaho  militia  was  at  that  time  in  the  Philippines  was 
made  an  excuse  by  the  mine  owners  for  sending  a  peti- 
tion to  the  Secretary  of  War  for  the  despatch  of 
United  States  troops.  These  were  sent  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Merriam,  who  proclaimed  martial 
law.  This  general  proceeded  to  arrest  and  confine  per- 
sons without  any  warrant  of  law  and  actually  issued 
a  proclamation  to  the  effect  that  the  mine-owners 
were  not  to  give  employment  to  any  miner  who  did 
not  hold  a  permit  from  the  military  authorities.  Ha- 
beas Corpus  was  suspended  and  the  men  were  confined 
in  a  cattle-pen  with  straw  for  a  bed  and  no  privacy. 
The  food,  according  to  some,  was  furnished  in  cattle- 
troughs,  according  to  others,  in  tin  pails  from  which 
it  was  taken  by  hand.  There  is  no  doubt  that  many 
indefensible  cruelties  and  tortures  of  a  minor  descrip- 
tion were  practiced  on  the  prisoners,  while  under  the 
guard  of  the  Federal  troops.  These  occurrences,  which 
were  followed  by  others  of  a  similar  character,  gave 
rise  to  an  intense  feeling  of  dislike,  of  the  military 
among  the  masses  of  laboring  people.  Even  the  Span- 
ish war  with  its  victories  and,  one  might  have  sup- 
posed, consequent  popularity  of  the  military,  was  in- 
sufficient to  stay  the  evidences  of  hatred  which  the 
populace,  or  at  least  that  portion  of  it  which  is  in- 
cluded under  the  term  organized  labor,  began  to  feel 
for  the  uniform.  Trades  unions  passed  resolutions 


168         THE    RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

forbidding  their  members  to  join  the  militia  of  the 
separate  states.  The  absence  of  the  genuine  artisan 
from  the  ranks  of  the  militia  becomes  more  and  more 
marked.  As  the  class  feeling  developes  there  arises  a 
complete  disseverance  between  the  working-class  and 
the  representatives  of  the  physical  force  side  of  the 
government. 

But  this  conflict  between  the  labor  organizations 
and  the  greater  capitalism  did  not  have  that  invig- 
orating effect  upon  the  former  which  might  have  been 
reasonably  expected.  On  the  other  hand,  the  oligar- 
chy which  swayed  the  political  and  busines  world 
mirrored  itself  in  the  labor  organizations.  The  ten- 
dency which  was  noted  in  the  previous  decade  per- 
sisted and  developed  itself  even  more  strongly.  The 
depression  in  trade  which  filled  so  large  a  portion  of 
this  period  had  caused  the  trades  organizations  to 
show  a  marked  falling  off  in  power  and  influence. 
Such  is  always  the  effect  of  economic  crises  and  hard 
times.  The  recurrence  of  industrial  prosperity,  on  the 
other  hand,  showed  itself  in  a  wonderful  growth  in 
the  trades  unions.  But  it  is  undeniable  that  this  ac- 
tivity in  trades  union  circles  produced  no  adequate 
effect  upon  the  position  of  the  working  class.  The 
share  of  product  which  went  to  the  laborer  ever  di- 
minished. The  liberties  taken  by  the  courts  and  the 
military  as  already  described  showed  that  the  influence 
exerted  by  the  laboring  class  upon  the  government 
was  of  the  slightest  and  that  their  enormous  numeri- 
cal strength  was  more  than  offset  by  the  wealth  of 
the  dominant  class.  The  reasons  for  this  condition 
of  things  appears  to  lie  in  the  characteristics  of  the 
American  labor  movement  as  it  had  been  developed  in 


OLIGARCHY   AND   IMPERIALISM  169 

the  course  of  economic  evolution  of  the  country.  There 
had  been  from  the  beginning,  as  in  England,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  a  failure  on  the  part  of  the  union  leaders 
to  grasp  the  significance  of  the  struggle  in  which  they 
were  involved.  The  failure  to  see  the  significance 
of  the  labor  movement  resulted  in  the  precipitation  of 
conflicts  in  which  the  working  class  was  confronted 
with  the  certainty  of  defeat.  Issues  also  upon  which 
a  straight  and  uncompromising  fight  between  the  op- 
posing classes  might  have  been  successfully  waged 
were  shirked.  Thus  much  needless  suffering  was  in- 
flicted and  slight  enthusiasm  engendered.  The  fact 
was  that  the  trades  leaders,  even  the  best  informed  of 
them,  were  continually  haunted  by  the  notion  of  con- 
tract. The  two  necessary  factors  of  production  were 
in  their  estimation  placed  in  juxtaposition,  in  eternal 
antithesis  like  the  ends  of  a  see  saw.  One,  however, 
could  not  gain  any  permanent  advantage  over  the 
other.  The  individual  capitalist  was  considered  by 
them  to  be  necessary  to  the  existence  of  the  working- 
man.  They,  even  the  strongest  of  them,  were  thus  de- 
prived of  the  enthusiasm  and  confidence  which  a  grasp 
of  the  class  war  would  have  given  them.  Without  this 
support  their  policy  was  wavering,  indecisive  and, 
though  of  temporary  value,  in  a  few  trades,  only  effi- 
cacious up  to  a  certain  point,  and  impotent  to  prevent 
the  returns  to  labor  continually  diminishing  in  ratio 
to  the  growth  in  wealth  and  the  increase  in  the  amount 
of  invested  capital.  Besides,  the  prospects  of  reward 
held  out  by  the  political  managers  of  the  greater  capi- 
talism to  successful  labor  leaders  had  filled  some  of 
the  most  ambitious  and  capable  with  the  resolution  of 
gaining  place  and  position  for  themselves  independent 


170         THE    RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

of  the  advancement  of  the  generality  of  the  class  to 
which  they  belonged.  Many  labor  leaders  became 
little  better  than  freebooters,  selling  their  followers 
in  the  interest  of  rival  capitalists,  turning  from  this 
side  to  that  in  the  war  which  rival  capitalistic  concerns 
waged  against  each  other,  according  to  the  price  of- 
fered for  their  services.  They  were  mere  condottieri 
selling  their  modern  equivalent  of  the  sword,  the 
power  of  organizing  and  leading  men,  to  the  highest 
bidder.  A  brisk  trade  was  done  in  union  labels  and 
other  devices  of  a  simliar  character.  Blackmail  was 
levied.  In  fact,  in  the  very  ranks  of  labor  itself  there 
was  a  group  of  corrupt  manipulators  whose  nefarious 
activities  may  be  compared  with  those  of  the  fraudu- 
lent army  contractors  operating  in  the  Spanish  War. 
It  became  more  and  more  evident  that  the  morals  of 
the  dominant  capitalism  were  rinding  their  reflection 
in  all  sections  of  the  community.  A  period  of  apathy 
in  the  ranks  of  labor  naturally  supervened.  Strikes  and 
lockouts  were,  of  course,  as  common  as  before;  the 
struggle,  inevitable  in  the  very  nature  of  things,  con- 
tinued. But  local  and  sectional  influences  were 
stronger  than  the  general  impulse.  The  ill-regulated 
and  ignorant,  but  at  the  same  time  generous,  en- 
thusiasms of  the  80's  had  waned,  and  the  all  pervad- 
ing cynicism  which  had  greeted  the  victories  of  the 
Spanish  War  with  a  perceptible  sneer  in  spite  of  the 
official  applause  found  its  counterpart  in  the  attitude 
of  the  masses  of  the  laboring  classes.  Though  the 
numbers  of  men  enrolled  in  the  unions  grew  with  won- 
derful rapidity  in  the  period  of  revived  prosperity, 
there  was  none  of  that  early  abandon  of  belief  in  the 
power  of  the  working  class  which  had  marked  the 


OLIGARCHY  AND   IMPERIALISM  171 

earlier  phases  of  the  trades  union  movement.  Lead- 
ers were  stronger  than  ever  before,  the  paper  force  of 
the  organizations  was  greater,  but  the  spirit  was  lack- 
ing. The  crushing  weight  of  the  triumphant  oligarchy 
weighed  down  the  hopes  of  the  toilers.  On  the  one 
hand,  their  great  industrial  lords  held  arrogant  sway, 
and  the  bulwarks  of  American  liberty  fell  before  them 
so  easily,  so  bewilderingly  easily  that  the  masses  of  the 
toilers  educated  in  the  public  schools  to  an  absolute 
belief  in  the  stability  of  the  institutions  of  the  country 
felt  hopeless  in  face  of  the  aggressions.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  small  bourgeoisie  which  was  as  much  op- 
posed economically  to  the  advance  of  the  oligarchy  as 
the  working  class  itself  was  bankrupt  in  character  as 
well  as  in  purse.  Noisy  demagogues  with  a  talent  for 
advertisement  but  with  no  ability  for  leadership  oc- 
casionally appeared  but  succumbed  to  the  money  force 
of  the  oligarchy  or  wearied  the  ears  of  the  populace 
with  incoherent  and  useless  complainings.  The  work- 
ing class  itself  was  devoid  both  of  leadership  and  of 
enthusiasm.  The  oligarchy  was  in  complete  and  al- 
most undisputed  possession  of  the  field. 

Though  the  official  representative  of  the  laboring 
class,  the  trades  union  movement,  was  in  such  a  de- 
plorable condition,  the  class  war  still  found  its  expo- 
nents in  the  socialist  movement.  This  movement  has 
been  referred  to  in  the  preceding  chapter.  It  was 
then  in  its  incipient  stage.  With  the  progress  of  the 
decade  under  consideration  it  developed  both  in  num- 
bers and  in  the  virility  and  definiteness  of  its  propa- 
ganda. The  increase  in  its  voting  strength  was 
marked.  Thus  from  a  vote  of  a  little  over  two  thous- 
and in  1888  it  attained  a  vote  of  nearly  forty  thousand 


172         THE    RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

in  1896.  But  the  progress  of  the  movement  was 
actually  much  greater  than  appears  from  the  consid- 
eration of  the  mere  vote.  Organization  had  been  ef- 
fected, speakers  trained,  an  English  press  established 
and  vast  amounts  of  literature,  largely  translations 
from  the  socialist  literature  of  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope, widely  distributed.  The  Socialist  Labor  Party 
was  the  name  of  the  socialist  organization  in  the  fore- 
front of  this,  as  it  may  be  termed,  missionary  period 
of  socialism.  The  apathy,  the  dishonesty  and  the  in- 
capacity of  the  trade  union  movement,  as  it  has  been 
described  did  not  escape  the  notice  of  these  keen  ob- 
servers of  social  phenomena.  The  Socialist  Labor 
party,  then,  naturally  and  logically  enough,  proceeded 
to  attack  the  trades  unionism  of  the  day.  The  Social- 
ist Labor  party  went  even  so  far  as  to  inaugurate  a 
form  of  trades  unionism  antagonistic  to  the  dominant 
pure  and  simple  English  type  of  unionism.  This  ac- 
tion, however,  precipitated  a  schism  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Socialist  Labor  party.  A  new  party  called  Social 
Democratic,  after  the  German  socialist  organization, 
was  formed.  Its  leading  exponent  was  Eugene  Debs, 
whose  connection  with  the  strike  of  the  American 
Railway  Union  has  already  been  noted.  After  a  short 
period  this  Social  Democratic  party  coalesced  with 
the  dissatisfied  element  of  the  Socialist  Labor  Party 
and  formed  a  new  organization,  under  the  name,  So- 
cialist Party,  which  was  more  successful,  politically,  than 
its  predecessor. 

This  in  the  very  hour  of  triumph  of  the  greater 
capitalism  the  enemy  was  developing  its  strength. 
Small  and  numerically  insignificant  as  it  was  the  capi- 
talistic forces  were  not  slow  to  recognize  its  poten- 


OLIGARCHY   AND   IMPERIALISM  173 

tialities.  The  press  teemed  with  attacks  upon  the  so- 
cialists and  the  pulpit,  ever  the  ready  servant  gf  ty- 
j^anny,  supplemented  the  efforts  of  the  press.  Such  is 
the  free  advertisement  which  the  spirit  presiding  over 
the  progress  of  humanity  always  provides  and,  in  pro- 
portion as  the  attacks  were  absurd  in  their  violence, 
the  interest  of  the  public  increased,  and  socialism,  in- 
stead of  being  considered  as  an  amiable  weakness  to 
which  emotional  people  and  raw  foreigners  were  par- 
ticularly prone,  received  very  general  recognition.  This 
does  not  imply  that  there  was  any  particular  grasp  or 
understanding  of  the  socialist  movement.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  views  advanced  both  by  advocates  and  op- 
ponents were  at  this  particular  period  more  marked 
by  crudity  and  feeling  than  by  knowledge  and  percep- 
tion. Still  the  point  had  ben  reached  when  socialism 
could  be  discussed,  as,  at  least,  a  possibility.  'Thus 
both  socialists  and  their  opponents  began  to  speculate 
upon  a  time  when  the  laboring  class,  tired  of  the  inso- 
lence of  the  oligarchy  and  the  incompetence  of  the 
trades  union  movement,  might  direct  its  attention  to 
the  new  propaganda. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PERIOD  OF  CORRUPTION 

It  is  very  obvious  that  the  economic  supremacy  of 
the  greater  capitalist  class,  as  already  described,  could 
not  have  failed  to  produce  the  most  profound  effects 
upon  American  life  and  manners.  In  the  preceding 
stages  of  the  economic  growth  of  this  country,  as  in- 
deed of  all  others,  we  find  that  the  prevailing  economic 
system  has  produced  its  effect  upon  the  population  in 
their  social  and  political  relations.  The  economic  en- 
vironment and  the  individual  citizens  are,  in  fact, 
practically  inseparable;  they  are  mutually  dependent. 
The  merging  of  nationalities  in  this  country  affords 
an  example  of  the  working  of  this  influence  of  eco- 
nomic environment  upon  the  individual.  Vast  num- 
bers of  immigrants  arrive  here,  the  representatives  of 
all  the  races,  and  latterly  in  particular  of  the  races 
which  have  shown  marked  aesthetic  qualities.  It  will 
be  noted,  however,  that  the  United  States  derives  no 
apparent  aesthetic  advantage  from  the  admixture.  The 
song  is  choked  in  the  throat  of  the  Italian;  the  taste 
of  the  Frenchman  does  not  improve  the  taste  of  his 
adopted  country;  on  the  other  hand  it  becomes  vul- 
garized by  the  prevailing  vulgarity.  The  reign  of  the 
oligarchy  has  been  conspicuous  for  its  corruption  and 
vulgarity.  The  dominance  of  the  petty  bourgeois  was 

174 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  175 

indeed  dreary  enough  but  it  had  a  sort  of  heartiness 
to  recommend  it.  Crudity  of  taste  and  Little  Bethel, 
the  distinguished  marks  of  the  lower  middle-class, 
both  in  this  country  and  Great  Britain  are  sufficiently 
annoying.  Compared,  however,  with  the  modern 
crude  worship  of  money  and  power  and  the  base  imi- 
tation of  the  worst  vices  of  the  European  rich  they 
are  almost  venial.  The  material  advance  of  the  United 
States  was  more  conspicuous  both  for  intensity  and 
rapidity  than  that  of  any  other  country.  The  mate- 
rial results  of  this  advance,  too,  under  circumstances 
which  did  not  allow  of  the  growth  of  a  sufficiently  well 
organized  proletariat,  were  more  conspicuous.  Ex- 
travagance and  ostentation  among  the  rich  reached 
such  a  pitch  that  the  American  millionaire  class  be- 
came a  jest  and  by  word  for  ostentatious  vulgarity 
among  the  riotous  lords  of  other  countries.  Tasteless 
and  coarse  expenditure  such  as  was  never  before  seen, 
not  even  when  the  cotton  lords  of  Manchester  ex- 
changed their  clogs  for  patent  leathers  and  adorned 
their  vivid  drawing  rooms  with  the  manners  of  the 
slums,  became  the  rule.  The  problems,  incident  upon 
the  creation  of  great  cities  and  a  consequent  slum  pro- 
letariat, which  beset  other  countries  now  began  to 
press  upon  this  land.  Withal,  there  was  but  little  pub- 
lic spirit  with  which  these  evils  might  be  combated. 
Just  as  the  masses  had  succumbed  with  almost  incredi- 
ble readiness  to  economic  tyranny  they  also  bent  the 
knee  with  meekness  to  the  political  tyranny  which  nat- 
urally succeeded  the  economic.  The  economic  fact 
again  mirrored  itself  in  the  political.  Concentration 
of  political  power  became  an  unavoidable  concomitant 
of  the  concentration  of  economic  power.  The  contest 


176  THE  RISE  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PROLETARIAN 

between  the  Senate  and  the  President  proceeded.  The 
local  governments  of  the  individual  states  soon  showed 
their  impotence  to  deal  with  conditions  which  tran- 
scended the  frontiers  of  their  respective  sovereignties. 
Thus  the  demand  for  Federal  control  and  Federal  inter- 
ference grew  in  intensity  as  the  necessity  became  ob- 
vious. The  smaller  capitalists,  increasingly  subjected 
to  economic  pressure  succumbed,  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  twentieth  century  were  unable  to  offer  even  the 
futile  resistance  which  they  had  made  a  decade  be- 
fore. The  proletariat  had  not  yet  found  itself  politi- 
cally, but  it  became  more  and  more  clear  that  it  had 
a  role  to  play,  if  the  country  was  to  have  any  relief 
from  the  growing  tyranny  gradually  imposed  upon  it 
through  the  concentration  of  economic  power. 

The  war  with  Spain  had  been  conducted  during  the 
presidency  of  William  McKinley.  He  had  come  to  be 
associated  in  the  minds  of  large  numbers  of  people 
with  the  politics  of  the  great  trusts.  He  was  in  fact 
the  protege  and  political  instrument  of  Mark  Hanna, 
who  may  be  safely  considered  to  be  the  ablest  politi- 
cian produced  by  the  greater  capitalism  to  the  present 
time.  His  grasp  of  the  situation  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  he  comprehended  the  necessities  of  the  greater 
capitalism  and  at  the  same  time  was  keen  enough 
to  detect  the  enemy  with  which  it  must  come  in  con- 
tact. He  foresaw,  as  few  or  perhaps  none  of  his  col- 
leagues did,  that  the  despised  socialist  agitation  rep- 
resented a  growing  threat  to  the  domination  of  the 
greater  capitalist  and  that  the  adoption  of  the  tenets 
and  policy  of  that  agitation  by  the  working  class  as 
a  whole  would  bring  about  the  downfall  of  that  power 
which  had  been  so  skillfully  and  elaborately  construct- 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  1 

ed.  The  death  of  McKinley,  at  the  hands  of  an  as- 
sassin who  foolishly  considered  that  in  this  way  he  was 
avenging  the  wrongs  of  the  people,  prepared  the  way 
to  power  for  a  new  man.  With  the  advent  of  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt  to  the  presidential  chair  much  of  the 
political  strength  of  the  greater  capitalism  was  lost. 
The  death  of  Hanna  shortly  afterwards  was  another 
blow  to  the  dominant  class.  The  government  was  the 
poorer  for  the  lack  of  a  real  directing  force  and  the 
departure  of  a  sagacious  statesman  who  really  under- 
stood what  was  expected  of  him  and  what  were  the 
real  purposes  of  American  politics  at  the  time  of  which 
we  are  writing.  Mr.  Roosevelt  developed  strange  and 
incomprehensible  ethical  tendencies.  He  appears  to 
be  of  the  belief  that  government  can  be  carried  on  by 
the  application  of  copybook  maxims.  He  is  a  sort  of 
protestant  minister,  who  finding  himself  in  a  posi- 
tion of  power  endeavors  to  rule  a  nation  in  terms  of 
the  pulpit.  He  has  won  enormous  popularity  owing 
to  his  possession  of  personal  qualities  which  appeal 
to  the  masses  and  by  his  denunciation  of  the  very  ob- 
vious evils  which  arise  from  the  concentration  of 
wealth  and  the  supremacy  of  the  greater  capitalism. 
He  has  not  seen,  however,  that  each  epoch  of  social 
evolution  has  the  "defects  of  its  qualities"  and  that 
the  evils  which  he  deplores  are  inseparable  from  the 
existence  of  the  greater  capitalism.  The  facts  as  well 
as  the  fates  are,  however,  against  him  and  the  logic 
of  events  is  fast  reducing  him  to  the  position  which 
he  is  entitled  to  occupy,  and  which  will,  in  the  course 
of  time,  make  the  Roosevelt  legend  one  of  the  most 
peculiar  and  sadly  humorous  episodes  in  American 
history.  But  with  all  his  lack  of  comprehension  as 


178          THE  RISE  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PROLETARIAN 

to  the  real  significance  of  the  part  which  he  is  ex- 
pected to  play  he  may  seriously  and  permanently  af- 
fect the  position  of  the  country  particularly  in  its  for- 
eign relations.  He  has  a  fixed  idea  of  the  importance 
of  the  share  which  the  United  States  is  destined  to  have 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  He  seeks  the  recognition 
of  the  country  as  one  of  the  Powers.  His  term  of  of- 
fice has  been'  signalized  by  the  most  flagrant  depart- 
ures from  the  old  American  idea  of  isolation.  Here, 
indeed,  the  economic  facts  have  obliged  to  a  certain 
extent  at  least  the  adoption  of  the  new  policy.  The 
development  of  the  greater  capitalism  coupled  with 
the  ramification  of  high  finance  long  ago  rendered  ob- 
ligatory the  entrance  of  this  country  into  the  circle  of 
the  Powers.  Thus  the  very  existence  of  the  greater 
capitalism  implied  in  itself  the  recognition  of  interna- 
tional capitalism  and,  what  was  not  yet  so  clearly  ob- 
served, also  the  recognition  of  the  identity  of  the  in- 
terests of  the  proletariat  in  the  two  hemispheres.  The 
one  of  necessity  implied  the  other.  As  the  more  fully 
developed  organization  of  capital  also  brought  about 
a  more  complete  organization  of  labor  so  also  the  in- 
ternationalization of  capital  of  necessity  implied  also 
the  internationalization  of  labor. 

A  curious  twist  moreover  was  given  to  an  old 
American  doctrine  by  the  more  recent  economic  de- 
velopments. The  Monroe  Doctrine,  which  had  been 
approved,  partly  on  sentimental  grounds  by  the  peo- 
ple of  this  country  at  the  time  of  its  adoption,  had 
been  spoken  of  as  a  bulwark  against  the  invasion  of 
the  weak  American  republics  by  powerful  European 
monarchies.  It  was  now  to  be  used  for  the  purpose 
of  securing  the  exploitation  of  the  Central  and  South 


UNi 


PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  1T9 

American  doctrine  by  the  later  economic  detailists  of 
the  United  States.  A  notable  instance  of  the  more 
recent  attitude  of  this  country  to  the  smaller  re- 
publics on  this  continent  is  to  be  found  in  the  treat- 
ment accorded  to  Colombia  at  the  hands  of  Mr.  Roose- 
velt. In  1902  an  act  was  passed  which  authorized  the 
President  to  negotiate  for  the  property  of  the  Panama 
Canal  Company  and  for  the  control  of  so  much  of  the 
territory  of  Colombia  as  the  canal  traversed.  Colom- 
bia being  dilatory  in  the  matter  of  coming  to  an  agree- 
ment, the  State  of  Panama,  under  influences  easily 
inferable  from  the  circumstances,  seceded.  Forthwith 
President  Roosevelt  recognized  the  independence  of 
the  State  of  Panama,  and  forbade  the  Republic  of 
Colombia  to  take  any  military  steps  to  restore  the  re- 
volted state  to  the  union,  and,  having  sent  warships, 
actually  landed  marines,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing 
any  interference  with  the  secession  of  the  State  of 
Panama.  It  has  been  pointed  out  that  this  action  of 
the  President  was  in  flat  violation  of  the  treaty  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  the  State  of  Colombia  in 
1846,  by  which  the  United  States  "guaranteed  the 
rights  of  property  and  sovereignty  possessed  by  Co- 
lombia over  the  territory  of  Panama."  This  behavior 
which  would  have  probably  been  called  treachery 
under  other  circumstances  less  pressing  than  those 
which  confronted  President  Roosevelt,  finds  its  sanc- 
tions in  the  necessities  of  that  portion  of  the  capitalists 
which  holds  the  possession  of  the  canal  across  the 
Isthmus  essential  to  its  interests.  The  same  attitude 
with  repect  to  the  smaller  republics  has  been  ob- 
servable on  other  occasions.  Thus,  the  troubles  which 
have  arisen  with  respect  to  Venezuela  have  been 


180         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

largely  provoked  by  the  manipulations  of  the  Asphalt 
Trust,  a  malodorous  association,  which,  after  having 
been  involved  in  numerous  scandals  with  municipali- 
ties in  this  country,  endeavored  to  obtain  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Federal  government  for  its  operations  in 
Venezuela.  In  Santo  Domingo  this  country  has  un- 
dertaken to  accept  certain  responsibilities  and  to  ex- 
ercise certain  rights  of  patronage  which  must  of  ne- 
cessity result  in  the  domination  of  the  smaller  repub- 
lic by  the  United  States.  There  is  no  question  that 
the  recent  attitude  of  the  United  States  to  the  smaller 
republics  has  had  the  effect  of  greatly  alarming  them. 
One  result  of  the  growth  of  the  greater  capitalism  in 
the  United  States  and  its  resultant  policies  has  been 
undoubtedly  the  growth  of  a  feeling  of  antagonism 
on  the  part  of  the  minor  states  and  of  an  apprehensive- 
ness  that  this  country  must  be  regarded  rather  as  a 
menace  than  as  a  protection  to  the  free  American 
States.  That  these  results  have  followed  quite  un- 
avoidably from  the  new  economic  conditions  is  unde- 
niable, but  it  is  equally  undeniable  that  they  have 
profoundly  modified  the  old  American  conception  of 
things.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  from  a  general  "hands 
off"  declaration  to  the  world  has  come  to  mean  "hands 
off  for  everybody,  except  ourselves."  That  this  new 
attitude  has  not  been  without  its  effects  upon  the  Eu- 
ropean Powers  is  sufficiently  obvious.  Germany, 
whose  commercial  and  colonizing  enterprise  has  been 
particularly  marked  in  Argentina  and  Brazil,  resents 
the  modern  application  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  and 
there  is  little  doubt  that  much  of  the  irritation  ob- 
servable in  the  relations  of  the  two  countries  is  due  to 
the  rigid  insistence  upon  the  inviolability  of  the  soil 


THE    PERIOD   OF    CORRUPTION  181 

of  this  continent  from  European  invasion.  The  inter- 
vention of  the  United  States,  however,  in  disputes  be- 
yond her  frontiers,  and  the  evident  desire  of  the  politi- 
cal magnates  that  the  country  should  be  a  "world- 
power"  appears  in  contrast  with  the  isolation  doctrine 
apparently  involved  in  a  strict  interpretation  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine.  Thus,  though  the  United  States  is 
fully  prepared  to  employ  the  Monroe  Doctrine  for  the 
purpose  of  maintaining  her  exclusive  suzerainty  in 
this  hemisphere,  and  of  extending  her  power  over  the 
smaller,  and,  as  time  may  show,  subject  peoples,  she 
is  not  by  any  means  prepared  to  confine  her  political 
activities  and  ambitions  to  this  hemisphere.  Hence 
this  country  becomes  more  and  more  involved  in  the 
disputes  of  other  countries.  The  results  of  recent 
American  foreign  policy  have  been  summarized  as  fol- 
lows by  an  English  organ  of  the  greater  capitalism: 
"The  principal  underlying  fact  is  the  alteration  which 
has  taken  place  in  the  international  position  of  the 
United  States.  It  has  definitely  and  deliberately 
emerged  from  the  self-centered  seclusion  which  consti- 
tuted the  ideal  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  and  as- 
sumed its  rightful  place  among  the  great  controlling 
organizations  of  the  world."  (London  "Standard," 
19th  Feb.,  1906).  It  is  the  boast  of  the  admirers  of- 
President  Roosevelt  that  he  brought  peace  out  of  the 
Russo-Japanese  War,  a  conflict  between  Russia  and 
Japan  for  the  control  of  the  Oriental  trade.  Our  en- 
voys at  Algeciras  in  1906  busied  themselves  at  a  con- 
ference to  settle  the  respective  claims  of  Germany  and 
France  to  precedence  in  the  exploitation  of  Morocco. 
Armed  intervention  in  China  along  with  the  military 
representatives  of  other  powers  launched  us  upon  a 


182         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

sea  of  fresh  complications  in  the  Orient.  The  desire 
to  be  a  colonizing  power  with  foreign  possessions  led 
to  the  conquest  and  annexation  of  the  Phliippines. 
The  result  of  the  military  changes  of  the  last  few 
years  has  been  thus  briefly  summarized  by  Henry 
George,  Jr. :  "We  have  Germanized  our  army  on  the 
general  staff  principle,  have  increased  the  number  of 
our  regulars  and,  incidentally,  incorporated  our  mili- 
tia as  practically  part  of  them."  The  same  tendencies 
as  were  to  be  observed  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign 
of  the  moneyed  oligarchy  still  prevail,  and  must  pre- 
vail because  the  vital  necessities  of  the  dominion  class 
are  interested  in  their  prevailing. 

But  while  the  luxury  of  the  members  of  the  domi- 
nant oligarchy  has  become  a  national  scandal,  and 
the  efforts  of  the  politicians  to  secure  a  position  for 
the  country  among  the  Powers  have  been  at  once  lu- 
dicrous and  painful,  the  corruption  in  politics  has  been 
perhaps  the  most  appalling  of  all  the  evils  which  the 
victory  of  the  greater  capitalism  has  brought  in  its 
train.  The  magazines  and  principal  periodicals  and 
newspapers  of  the  country  all  through  the  earlier 
years  of  the  twentieth  century  have  been  filled  with 
accounts  of  the  debauchery  of  the  legislatures  and 
municipal  governments.  The  most  elaborate  details 
of  the  various  agencies  employed  by  the  servants  of 
these  capitalistic  interests  were  fully  and  completely 
described,  but  it  is  much  to  be  doubted  if  the  publica- 
tion of  these  facts  achieved  any  actual  results.  The 
community  appeared  to  be  paralyzed  in  face  of  an 
enemy  against  whose  advances  none  of  the  ordinary 
precautions  of  politics  were  of  the  slightest  avail.  The 
specialization  which  has  been  so  marked  a  feature  ot 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  183 

the  industrial  life  of  the  country  was  manifest  also  in 
the  matter  of  political  corruption.  It  is  probable  that 
there  has  never  been  a  governing  class  in  any  country 
at  any  time  which  has  commanded  as  effective  ser- 
vice as  the  great  American  corporations  and  trusts. 
The  zeal  and  ability  of  the  politicians  and  managers 
employed  by  these  institutions  entitle  them  to  the 
highest  position  in  the  rogue's  gallery  of  politics.  To 
their  unscrupulous  cunning  and  cynical  knowledge  of 
the  weaknesses  of  men,  particularly  in  a  country 
where  money  is  the  only  mark  of  distinction,  they 
added  readiness  of  resource  and  audacity  of  conduct. 
Their  achievements  are  in  their  way  as  interesting  and 
remarkable  as  are  the  deeds  of  the  hired  bravos  of  the 
Middle  Ages  or  the  Barry  Lyndons  of  a  later  date. 
There  is  no  opportunity  here  save  to  glance  very 
briefly  at  some  of  the  most  conspicuous  fields  of  their 
enterprise.  There  will  be  no  difficulty  experienced  in 
following  the  details,  however,  for  there  is  no  lack  of 
material.  The  monthly  magazines  exploited  the  wick- 
edness of  the  ruling  class  and  coined  money  out  of  the 
exposure  of  the  degradation  of  the  community  and  the 
machinations  of  organized  capital.  A  sort  of  pride  in 
the  wickedness  of  their  oppressors  seems  to  have  per- 
vaded the  people.  The  popular  view  of  the  matter 
was  for  the  most  part  cynical,  coupled  with  a  certain 
wonder  on  the  part  of  the  old  and  more  ethical  Amer- 
icans that  such  abominations  could  go  unpunished  and 
the  country  still  maintain  its  existence.  Public  moral- 
ity, in  the  political  sense,  ceased  to  be  even  expected. 
It  is  true  that  clumsy  malefactors  were  occasionally 
detected  and  made  to  serve  as  public  examples,  not 
for  their  wrong  doing,  but  because  of  their  imprudence 


184        THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

and  lack  of  astuteness.  Everybody  knew  that  the  cor- 
porations and  great  money  powers  bought  or  forced 
the  mass  of  undetected  senators,  congressmen  and 
members  of  the  state  legislatures  to  do  their  will.  The 
more  sagacious  recognized  that  there  are  discreetly 
hidden  paths  by  which  the  forces  of  the  plutocrats 
move  to  the  conquest  of  the  capitols  whether  in 
Washington  or  the  individual  states.  The  cynical 
asked  why  it  should  not  be  so.  The  power  of  organ- 
ized wealth  was  during  this  whole  period  the  only  ef- 
fective force  in  the  community.  No  other  power  could 
even  compare  with  it  either  in  self  confidence  or  in 
actual  ability.  The  term  "organized  wealth"  but  fee- 
bly expresses  the  motive  force  of  this  conquering 
power.  The  men  who  had  acquired  this  wealth  or  for 
whom  it  had  been  acquired  and  who  controlled  it 
moved  as  implacably  as  has  the  Muscovite  foreign  pol- 
icy since  the  days  of  Peter  the  Great.  Necessity 
compelled  them  willy-nilly  to  extend  their  powers. 
Great  leaders,  as  many  of  them  undoubtedly  were, 
born  organizers  and  directors  of  men,  indomitable  in 
their  purpose  and  unlimited  in  their  ambitions,  they 
were  compelled  to  spend  their  energies  on  the  further 
accumulation  of  wealth  and  the  building  up  of  power 
which  under  the  circumstances  could  not  be  called 
other  than  vulgar,  and  which,  for  its  perpetuation, 
demanded  the  destiuction  of  civic  virtue.  This,  in- 
deed, having  been  already  sapped  by  the  petty  larce- 
nous proclivities  of  the  petty  bourgeois  was  in  no  con- 
dition to  withstand  so  gorgeous  a  suitor.  An  inquiry 
into  the  management  of  the  great  life  insurance  com- 
panies revealed  the  fact  that  the  Republican  party  had 
received  contributions  to  its  political  funds  from  the 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  185 

three  principal  companies — the  New  York  Life,  the 
Equitable,  and  the  Mutual.  These  contributions  had 
been  placed  by  the  several  managements  of  these  com- 
panies without  any  notification  to  the  policy  holders 
whose  money  was  thus  expended  without  their  con- 
sent. This  is  no  place  to  examine  the  question  of 
ethics  as  regards  the  relations  of  the  directorates  of 
these  companies  with  their  policy  holders.  It  is  enough 
to  point  out  that  the  officers  of  the  companies  regard- 
ed the  Republican  party,  the  party  of  the  greater  cap- 
italism, as  primarily  the  protectors  of  the  funds  of  the 
companies.  Mr.  Geo.  W.  Perkins,  chairman  of  the 
finance  committee  of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance 
Company,  justified  the  payment  of  such  contributions 
to  political  parties  upon  the  grounds  that  "they  be- 
lieved that  the  integrity  of  our  Bassets  was  thereby  pro- 
tected." It  is  evident  therefore  that  the  Republican 
party  was  regarded  by  financial  leaders  as  the  politi- 
cal protector  of  the  great  financial  interests.  It  is  ob- 
vious also  that  breaches  of  law  on  behalf  of  the  great 
corporations  were  regarded  leniently  by  the  govern- 
ment as  is  shown  in  the  case  of  Paul  Morton,  for  a 
time  Secretary  of  Navy.  He,  when  traffic  manager 
of  the  Topeka,  Atchison  and  Santa  Fe  Railway,  had 
confessedly  broken  the  law  against  discriminating 
rates  by  giving  rebates.  This  fact  did  not,  however, 
affect  his  position  as  cabinet  minister,  nor  did  it  inter- 
fere with  the  continuance  of  his  friendly  political  re- 
lations with  President  Roosevelt.  In  fact  the  Presi- 
dent rejected  the  advice  of  special  counsel  for  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  that  contempt  proceedings  should 
be  instituted  against  Morton,  and  the  counsel  there- 
upon resigned.  The  use  of  free  railroad  passes  both 


186         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

by  members  of  Congress  and  members  of  the  various 
state  legislatures  is  very  common,  almost  universal  in 
fact,  although  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
has  interpreted  the  law  as  forbidding  the  issuance  of 
free  passes  to  anyone.  The  effect  which  the  financial 
power  may  have  even  over  the  Federal  government  is 
shown  in  the  fact  that  the  powder  trust  has  the  gov- 
ernment practically  by  the  throat.  The  following 
statement  was  recently  made  to  a  sub-committee  of 
the  Senate  committee  on  appropriations:  "This  great 
country  is  wholly  dependent  in  peace  and  war  upon 
the  gigantic  trust  that  has  an  absolute  and  exclusive 
monopoly  of  the  manufacture  of  all  the  powder  that 
the  government  requires  for  offensive  and  defensive 
use."  This  is  but  one  and  very  insignificant  example 
of  the  power  exercised  by  these  aggregations  of  capi- 
tal. Against  their  attacks  the  government  appears  to 
be  practically  helpless.  Every  legislative  enactment 
is  vitiated  by  the  antiquated  and  indeed  practically 
obsolete  doctrines  of  property  and  contract,  and  the 
law  is  interpreted  by  the  courts  in  terms  which  were 
applicable  to  earlier  and  elementary  communities  but 
are  incompatible  with  the  present  condition  of  eco- 
nomic and  social  development. 

The  corruption  of  the  state  legislatures  by  the  same 
forces  as  have  operated  to  destroy  the  virtue,  never  too 
exalted,  of  the  national  government,  is  carried  out  by 
practically  the  same  forces.  In  the  individual  states 
the  great  corporations  are  able  to  achieve  their 
purposes  more  easily  and  more  thoroughly  than  in  the 
federal  government.  The  limited  area  and  the  fact 
that  certain  specific  capitalistic  interests  are  in  control 
of  certain  localities  render  the  work  of  the  organ- 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  187 

izers  of  the  capitalistic  forces  all  the  more  simple.  In 
some  localities  the  railroad  interest  is  supreme,  and 
every  department  of  the  state  government  is  practi- 
cally under  the  control  of  this  interest  from  the  gov- 
ernor to  the  merest  justice  of  the  peace.  Both  houses 
of  the  legislature,  the  supreme  court  and  the  subsidiary 
courts,  in  fact  the  entire  machinery,  move  at  the  bid- 
ding of  the  corporation  in  power.  This  is  irrespective 
of  the  particular  party  which  happens  to  occupy  the 
seat  of  political  authority  at  any  given  time,  for  the 
agents  of  the  corporations  carry  on  their  work  in  spite 
of  any  artificial  differences  which  political  parties  may 
set  up  in  order  to  absorb  the  public  interest  and  to 
draw  away  the  attention  of  the  electorate  from  the 
real  points  at  issue.  Sugar  interests,  railroad  interests, 
Standard  Oil,  copper  interests  and  a  host  of  other  great 
capitalistic  interests  dominate  entire  localities  and  im- 
pose their  will  upon  the  community.  To  add  to  the 
incubus,  the  municipalities  are  likewise  controlled  by 
minor  trusts  and  monopolies  which  are  no  less  severe 
in  their  demands  and  corrupting  in  their  influence  than 
are  the  larger  interests  which  control  the  national  and 
state  governments.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  majority 
of  these  smaller  state  and  municipal  corporations  are 
mere  offshoots  and  dependencies  of  the  larger  na- 
tional and,  in  the  cases  of  the  sugar  trust  and  Stand- 
ard Oil,  at  least,  international  concerns.  Among  these 
smaller  corporations  may  be  mentioned  those  con- 
trolling the  electric  and  gas-lighting  of  cities,  the  tele- 
phone service,  the  water-supply,  sanitary  reduction 
works  and  other  enterprises  of  like  character.  Besides 
these  may  be  enumerated  contracting  firms  having  a 
monopoly  of  street  making  and  the  erection  of  public 


188         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

buildings,  large  firms  conducting  staple  industries  in 
certain  localities,  such  as  mining  companies  and  large 
manufacturers  of  textile  fabrics  and  other  commodities 
requiring  the  employment  of  numbers  of  men,  women 
and  children  and  consequently  having  dependent  upon 
them  a  host  of  retail  dealers,  saloon  keepers  and  other 
small  tradesmen. 

The  tyranny  of  the  transportation  and  irrigation 
companies  presses  hard  upon  the  farmers  and  fruit- 
growers in  the  rural  districts  and  their  brother  monop- 
olies press  the  middle  class,  storekeepers  and  others  in 
the  towns  to  the  wall.  The  smaller  manufacturers  and 
tradesmen  whose  economic  competition  with  the  trust 
and  larger  capitalistic  concerns  is  hopeless,  also  feel 
the  strain.  Hence  the  demand  has  arisen  from  these 
classes  that  the  community  should  acquire  those  prop- 
erties which  are  tersely  but  erroneously  termed  "pub- 
lic utilities."  As  early  as  the  populist  movement  a 
demand  was  made  by  the  farming  class  for  the  nation- 
alization of  the  means  of  transportation.  By  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century  the  cry  for  state  and 
municipal  ownership  of  the  "natural  monopolies"  had 
developed  a  very  considerable  volume  of  public  senti- 
ment, and  it  became  obvious  that  the  tendency  to  a 
sort  of  bourgeois  collectivism  would  have  a  very 
marked  effect  for  a  time  at  least  upon  American  poli- 
tics. It  will  be  noted,  however,  that  this  movement 
was  in  no  sense  revolutionary  or  even  novel.  The 
rights  of  property  were  carefully  guarded  by  its  mid- 
dle class  instigators.  Thus,  although  the  property  of 
the  great  monopolistic  corporations  in  control  of  the 
aforesaid  "public  utilities"  was  held  subject  to  char- 
ters, which  had  been  almost  uniformly  violated  there 


THE    PERIOD   OF    CORRUPTION  189 

was  little  talk  about  preventing  the  companies  from 
operating  further  under  the  terms  of  charters  which 
they  obviously  did  not  respect.  Such  a  course  would 
have  been  considered  an  invasion  of  property  rights, 
as  generally  understood,  and  as  property-holders,  even 
small  property-holders,  they  could  not  afford  to  jeop- 
ardize their  position.  Moreover,  the  courts,  as  the 
creatures  of  the  dominant  corporate  forces,  could  not 
have  been  found  to  warrant  any  such  drastic  proceed- 
ings. There  is  little  question,  too,  that  the  greater 
capitalists  would  not  oppose  a  limited  amount  of  pub- 
lic ownership  carried  out  with  due  deference  to  vested 
interest.  This  because  the  investment  of  their  surplus 
capital  in  government  and  municipal  bonds  would 
bring  them  a  rate  of  interest  which  they  could  not 
afford  to  despise  in  view  of  the  falling  rate  of  interest 
on  invested  capital  due  to  the  development  of  industry. 
Besides,  the  public  ownership  contingent  in  politics 
being  composed  of  the  middle  and  subjugated  class 
have  neither  the  political  ability  nor  the  vital  energy 
necessary  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  task  which 
they  have  undertaken.  The  brains  of  the  smaller  mid- 
dle class  have  already  been  bought  by  the  greater  capi- 
talists. Talent  employed  in  the  service  of  the  chiefs 
of  industry  and  finance  can  command  better  prices 
than  can  be  obtained  in  the  uncertain  struggle  for 
economic  standing  which  members  of  the  middle  class 
have  to  wage.  The  road  to  professional  and  political 
preferment  lies  through  the  preserves  of  the  ruling 
oligarchy  whose  wardens  allow  no  one  to  pass,  save 
servants  in  livery.  Every  material  ambition  of  youth 
is  to  be  gratified  in  the  service  of  the  oligarchy  which 
shows,  generally,  an  astuteness  in  the  selection  of  tal- 


190         THE   RISE   OF  THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

ent  that  would  do  credit  to  a  bureaucrat  or  a  Jesuit. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  strange  that  the 
middle  class  has  an  ever  increasing  difficulty  in  find- 
ing the  force  and  talent  necessary  to  maintain  its 
fight.  The  representatives  gathered  at  conventions 
which  seek  public  ownership  as  a  remedy  will  as  a 
rule  be  found  to  be  men  past  middle  life,  who  have 
failed  in  their  personal  fight  in  life.  In  addition  to 
these,  who  are  in  a  great  number  of  cases  lawyers  in 
search  of  clients  and  influence,  the  farming  element  is 
represented.  These  farmers  wish  to  compel  the  rail- 
ways to  lower  the  rates  and  thus  enable  them  to  dis- 
pose of  their  crops  the  more  readily.  It  will  be  ob- 
served that  this  farming  element  contemplates  no  at- 
tack upon  the  present  system  of  property  or  the  pres- 
ent legal  conceptions  of  contract.  The  farmers  are  sat- 
isfied, as  far  as  human  beings  are  ever  satisfied,  with 
existing  conditions,  if  the  transportation  and  irriga- 
tion monopolies  cease  to  press  them  too  hard.  They 
will  not  tolerate  an  attack  upon  property  notions  be- 
cause they  are  themselves  owners  of  property;  they 
have  but  little  sympathy  with  the  labor  movement, 
because  they  are  themselves  employers  of  labor.  In 
the  number  of  the  active  advocates  of  the  public  own- 
ership party  there  are  also  to  be  found  a  sprinkling 
of  trades  union  leaders  who  are  seeking  political  no- 
tice or  who  are  naturally  anxious  to  ally  themselves 
with  the  class  immediately  above  them.  It  will  be 
noted,  however,  that  the  great  masses  of  the  working 
class  hold  themselves  aloof  from  these  middle  class 
demonstrations  from  an  instinctive  feeling  that  these 
matters  are  of  small  concern  to  them.  The  instinct  is 
correct. 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  191 

An  interesting  commentary  upon  the  value  of 
the  "public  ownership"  agitation  is  furnished  in  the 
letter  of  resignation  sent  by  Joseph  Medill  Patterson, 
Commissioner  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works  of  Chi- 
cago, to  Mayor  Dunne  of  that  city  in  March,  1906. 
In  the  course  of  that  letter  Mr.  Patterson  says:  "I 
used  to  believe  that  many  of  the  ills  under  which  the 
nation  suffers  and  by  which  it  is  threatened  would  be 
prevented  or  avoided  by  the  general  inauguration  of 
the  policy  of  public  ownership  of  public  utilities,  but 
my  experience  in  the  Department  of  Public  Works 
has  convinced  me  that  this  policy  would  not  be  even 
one-fourth  of  the  way  sufficient."  He  says  further, 
as  showing  the  recognition  in  the  mind  of  an  honest 
bourgeois  official  of  the  cogency  of  actual  facts :  "Ap- 
plication to  the  state  attorney  evolved  the  fact  that 
our  present  laws — passed  in  the  interest  of  capital — 
make  it  no  offence  for  capital,  i.  e.  the  privileged  few, 
to  steal  from  the  community,  i.  e.,  the  unprivileged 

many I  realized,  soon  after  I  took  office 

that  to  fight  privilege  under  the  present  laws  would 
be  a  jest.  The  cards  were  stacked  in  its  favor  from  the 
start;  the  dice  were  loaded  and  are  loaded  against 
the  community.  Hence  of  the  insignificant  little  bit 
that  I  accomplished  not  one  tithe  of  a  tithe  could  have 
been  accomplished  through  the  law."  Crude  as  are 
the  above  statements  they  are  none  the  less  valuable 
on  that  account.  The  lesson  learnt  by  the  ex-Commis- 
sioner of  Public  Works  must  be  learnt  by  students 
of  politics  and  economics  and  by  the  leaders  of  popular 
movements  before  any  real  progress  can  be  made  to- 
wards the  solution  of  the  problems  presented  by  the 
growth  of  the  greater  capitalism. 


192         THE    RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

The  rule  of  the  industrial  lords  has  not  only  prac- 
tically destroyed  the  middle  class,  but  the  working 
class  has  found  itself  powerless  to  cope  with  the  on- 
slaughts of  organized  capital.  In  spite  of  the  enor- 
mous increase  in  the  national  wealth,  the  working 
class  during  the  last  decade  lost  in  economic  position, 
and  again,  as  in  the  preceding  epoch,  the  trades  or- 
ganizations were  unable  to  prevent  the  decline  in  rela- 
tive material  wellbeing.  The  census  returns  make 
clearly  evident  the  loss  which  has  been  sustaind  by 
that  class  during  the  forty  years  since  the  close  of  the 
Civil  War,  the  period  during  which  the  greater  capi- 
talism has  practically  imposed  its  rule  upon  the  nation. 
In  those  forty  years  the  values  of  manufactured  pro- 
ducts increased  from  $1,885,861,676  to  $13,039,279,566. 
In  the  same  period  the  amount  paid  in  wages  rose  from 
$378,878,966  to  $2,330,578,010.  Wages  therefore  at 
what  may  be  called  the  practical  beginning  of  the 
greater  capitalism  in  this  country  represented  about 
thirty  per  cent  of  the  value  of  the  product,  and  at  the 
end  of  forty  years,  during  the  greater  part  of  which 
time  an  active  trades  union  agitation  has  been  carried 
on,  they  represented  about  seventeen  per  cent  of  the 
total  product.  So  that  under  what  is  after  all  the  only 
valid  standard  of  comparison,  the  American  laborer 
has  actually  lost  ground.  When  we  compare  the  actual 
average  wage  of  forty  years  ago  with  that  received  at 
the  present  day,  the  differences  will  be  found  to  be 
slight  and  the  advantage  in  favor  of  the  workingman 
of  to-day  largely  illusory.  Thus,  the  average  wage  in 
the  decade  ending  1870  was  $377 ;  in  the  decade  ending 
1880,  $346 ;  in  the  decade  ending  1890,  $445,  and  in  the 
decade  ending  1900,  $436.  Against  the  apparent  rise 


THE    PERIOD   OF    CORRUPTION  193 

in  wages  must  be  set  off  an  increase  in  the  prices  of 
staple  commodities,  which  was  most  severely  felt  at 
the  close  of  the  decade  1890-1900  and  thereafter. 
House-rent,  butcher's  meat,  sugar,  flour,  and  other 
staples  all  rose  in  price,  some  of  them  very  consid- 
erably. At  the  present  time,  therefore,  the  lot  of  the 
American  proletariat  is  by  no  means  relatively  sat- 
isfactory. Briskness  of  trade  and  the  consequent  com- 
parative regularity  of  employment  have  contributed  to 
conceal  the  actual  conditions  with  which  the  proleta- 
rian will  be  confronted  upon  the  inevitable  ebb  of 
prosperity.  The  position  of  the  American  worker  has 
moreover  suffered  deterioration  in  other  respects. 

In  spite  of  the  enormous  increase  in  the  national 
wealth  which  rose  from  $65,000,000,000  in  1890  to 
$90,000,000,000  in  1900  the  evils  which  are  continually 
associated  with  a  low  grade  economic  development 
have  actually  grown  in  our  midst.  In  the  twenty 
years  from  1880  to  1900,  child-labor  had  increased  fifty 
per  cent,  so  that  there  are  at  least  1,700,000  children 
in  the  country  engaged  in  gainful  occupations.  Con- 
servative estimates  of  a  more  recent  date  place  the 
number  at  more  than  two  millions.  About  125,000 
young  boys  are  employed  in  Pennsylvania,  chiefly  in 
the  mines.  In  the  same  state  4,000  girls  are  at  work 
and  fifty  per  cent  of  these  under  thirteen  years  of  age 
are  engaged  in  labor  all  night.  In  Georgia  the  condi- 
tions of  child  labor  in  the  textile  factories  are  worse 
than  the  same  conditions  were  in  Lancashire  seventy 
years  ago,  and  there  does  not  appear  to  be  any  public 
sentiment  in  that  community  to  which  an  appeal  can 
be  made.  There  are  no  less  than  5,000,000  women  at 
work  in  the  United  States,  of  whom  2,000,000  toil  in 


194         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

factories  and  mills.  The  employment  of  women, 
which  has  been  a  constant  phenomenon  since  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  machine  industry  and  the  growth 
of  the  greater  capitalism  has  assumed  proportions 
which  are  at  the  present  time  really  threatening.  The 
American  male  proletarian  grows  less  and  less  able 
to  maintain  his  family.  This  fact  is  tending  to  the 
abandonment  of  families  by  their  male  heads  and  a 
steady  increase  in  the  number  of  abandoned  families 
as  well  as  to  a  growing  disinclination  on  the  part  of 
men  to  take  upon  themselves  the  burden  of  the  married 
state.  The  married  proletarian  is  obliged  to  call  upon 
the  assistance  of  his  wife  and  children.  So  far  has 
this  state  of  things  proceeded  that  it  has  been  actually 
suggested  that  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  poverty 
for  the  working  class  might  be  found  in  the  employ- 
ment of  both  husband  and  wife  in  remunerative  toil. 
All  this  is  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  American  industries 
are  most  carefully  protected  against  competition  with 
the  "pauper  labor  of  Europe."  The  intensity  of  mod- 
ern labor  too  requires  an  increasing  sacrifice  of  the 
reserve  vital  resources  of  the  individual  worker  so  that 
the  age  limit  of  employment  tends  ever  lower.  A 
proletarian  has  fewer  chances  of  obtaining  employ- 
ment after  he  has  reached  the  age  of  forty  than  here- 
tofore, and  in  some  industries,  notably  the  steel  in- 
dustry, men  of  thirty-five  do  not  easily  find  work.  Sav- 
ings bank  deposits  are  frequently  taken  as  a  criterion 
of  the  conditionof  the  working  class  and  the  greatly 
increased  amounts  of  such  deposits  are  considered  as 
testimony  to  the  prosperity  of  that  class.  This  theory, 
however,  though  long  disputed  by  the  exponents  of 
the  proletariat,  has  received  a  severe  blow  recently 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  195 

at  the  hands  of  a  practical  expert.  J.  Hansen  Rhoades, 
President  of  the  Greenwich  Savings  Bank  of  New 
York,  says  in  the  Financial  Supplement  of  the  New 
York  Times  for  1896:  "The  huge  deposits  in  theu  sav- 
ings banks  of  the  State  of  New  York  indicate  a  sus- 
pension of  development  in  building  and  the  holding 
of  money  for  the  time  being  as  well  as  a  disposition 
to  use  the  banks  for  investment  on  good  interest." 
He  also  speaks  of  the  "constant  and  increasing  pres- 
sure on  the  part  of  that  portion  of  the  public  well  able 
to  take  care  of  their  own  property  to  open  accounts 
with  the  savings  banks."  From  the  proletarian  stand- 
point, the  following  statement  from  the  New  York 
"People"  is  to  the  same  effect:  "The  large  amounts  of 
deposits  is  no  evidence  of  the  workingman's  pros- 
perity. Originally  the  savings  bank  was  the  working- 
man's  bank.  To-day  the  oft  repeated  claim  that  the 
large  savings  bank  deposits  are  an  evidence  and  meas- 
ure of  working  people's  prosperity  is  a  myth."  The 
futility  of  the  trades  union  movements  as  at  present 
conducted  in  so  far  as  that  movement  undertakes  to 
advance  or  even  to  maintain  the  position  of  the  work- 
ing class  is  practically  established.  The  proletarian 
has  been  whipped  from  pillar  to  post,  in  spite  of  his 
unions,  which  have,  in  many  respects,  been  actual  im- 
pediments to  him,  since  they  have  operated  in  some 
measure  to  conceal  from  him  the  fact  that  he  is  losing 
ground.  The  machine  industry  in  the  hands  of  the 
greater  capitalism  has  so  far  economically  vanquished 
the  laboring  class  in  this  country.  The  political  and 
material  advantages  of  accumulated  wealth  have  been 
too  much  for  the  proletarian.  It  must  be  candidly  ad- 
mitted, too,  that  the  latter  has  by  no  means  done  as 


196         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

well  as  he  might  have  done,  even  with  all  the  odds 
against  him.  The  working  class  has  so  far  produced 
few  leaders  worthy  of  the  name,  and  such  as  have 
stood  out  from  the  rank  and  file  have  in  many  cases 
shamelessly  and  unconscionably  abandoned  their  work 
and  have  accepted  political  preferment  even  if  they 
have  not  taken  actual  money  from  the  hands  of  the 
enemies  of  their  class.  The  history  of  organized  labor 
in  the  United  States  has  so  far,  it  must  be  confessed, 
shown  little  superiority  to  that  of  organized  capitalism. 
It  is  in  both  cases  a  sordid  and  dreary  tale,  and,  in  the 
case  of  organized  labor,  is  unrelieved  to  a  disappoint- 
ing degree  by  the  heroism  and  sentiment  which  have 
played  such  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  labor  movements 
of  other  countries.  The  cynicism  of  a  civilization  based 
on  cash  seems  to  have  found  its  way  into  the  bones  of 
both  capitalist  and  proletarian.  The  lingering  remains 
of  sentiment  are  apparently  confined  to  those  members 
of  the  smaller  middle  class  who  still  persist  in  surviv- 
ing with  all  the  odds  against  them. 

The  weakness  of  this  latterday  trades  unionism  is 
apparent  in  the  fact  that  the  employing  class  now  felt 
itself  sufficiently  strong  not  only  to  defend  itself 
against  the  actions  of  the  unions,  but  also  to  commence 
aggressive  operations  against  the  organized  labor 
movement.  An  organized  agitation  sprang  up  in  favor 
of  the  "open  shop."  This  term  is  applied  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  allowing  trades  unionists  and  non-unionists 
to  work  together  without  discrimination.  Such  was 
the  politic  language  in  which  the  demands  of  the  em- 
ployers were  framed,  but  it  is  obvious  even  to  a  casual  ob- 
server of  social  phenomena  that  such  a  condition  of 
affairs  would  have  resulted  in  the  extinction  of  the 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  197 

unions  and  would  have  placed  organized  labor  com- 
pletely at  the  mercy  of  the  employers.  The  latter  made 
a  plea  of  individualism  and  the  right  to  make  separate 
contracts  with  individual  workmen.     The  petty  bour- 
geois and  reactionary  character  of  the  "open  shop" 
movement  is  clearly  seen  in  this  fact.     As  we  shall 
see   later  the   greater   capitalists   had  a   much   more 
sagacious  view  of  the   situation   created   by  modern 
conditions.    The  chief  organization  made  for  the  pur- 
pose of  advocating  and  righting  for  the  "open  shop" 
principle  was  called  the  National  Association  of  Man- 
ufacturers.    To  supplement  the  work  of  this  another 
organization  called  the  Citizens'  Industrial  Association 
was  afterwards  formed.    This  second  organization  was 
made  for  the  rough  work  of  actual  conflict  with  the 
unions  and  consisted  of    associations    of    employers 
formed  for  purposes  of  mutual  protection  and  encour- 
agement and  to  render  more  easy  the  furnishing  of 
financial  aid  required  during  times  of  strike  and  stress. 
To  what  length  this  organization,  which  is  more  gen- 
erally known  as  the  "Citizens'  Alliance,"  would  ven- 
ture to  proceed  may  be  seen  from  a  glance  at  its  ac- 
tivities in  Colorado.     Its  immediate  success  may  be 
learnt  from  the  report  of  David  M.  Parry,  President  of 
the  organization,  in  November,  1904.    In  this  he  stated 
that  within  the  year  one  thousand  factories  had  opened 
their  doors  to  workmen  without  regard  to  their  mem- 
bership in  unions.     All  over  the  country,  and  in  the 
West,   particularly,  this   association   made   itself   felt. 
It  won  some  victories  and  might  have  accomplished 
more,  had  it  not  been  for  the  general  cowardice  and 
lack  of  real  organizing  force  of  the  class  from  which 
it  originated  and  of  which  it  was  the  representative. 


198         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

As  it  is,  in  spite  of  some  local  victories  the  organiza- 
tion does  not  appear  to  have  the  element  of  real 
strength.  Trade  jealousies  and  the  fear  on  the  part 
of  retailers  and  small  manufacturers  lest  they  should 
offend  numerically  large  bodies  like  the  trades  unions 
and  earn  their  ill  will  have  had  considerable  influence. 
Besides  this  movement  could  not  escape  the  very  es- 
sential drawback  of  all  petty  bourgeois  movements 
that  its  membership  is  made  up  of  individuals  in  a  per- 
petual state  of  economic  competition  with  each  other. 
All  these  factors  have  conspired  against  the  perma- 
nance  of  the  Citizens'  Alliance  movement.  Perhaps 
another  and  most  important  reason  why  the  Citizens' 
Alliance  will  be  found  wanting  in  effectiveness  as  an 
ally  of  the  capitalistic  regime  consists  in  the  fact  that 
wherever  it  has  gained  any  particular  headway,  the 
result  of  its  efforts  has  been  to  drive  the  workingclass 
into  independent  class  politics.  Nothing  that  produces 
such  an  effect  can  be  regarded  with  any  favor  by  the 
employing  class  and  the  strenuous  activities  of  the 
Citizens'  Alliance  are  not  likely  to  meet  with  much 
favor  at  the  hands  of  those  who  are  occupied  in  fur- 
thering the  interests  of  the  oligarchy.  However, 
apart  from  the  actual  value  of  the  Citizens'  Alliance  as 
a  fighting  organization,  the  mere  fact  of  its  creation 
as  an  active  and  aggressively  offensive  force,  is  proof 
of  the  contempt  into  which  the  tactics  of  the  Amer- 
ican Federation  of  Labor  had  brought  the  working 
class  economic  movement. 

Another  sign  of  the  determination  to  give  battle 
to  the  trades  unionists  is  to  be  seen  in  the  organization 
of  "strike-breakers"  or  "free  companies"  as  the}'-  are 
sometimes  called  after  their  medieval  prototypes. 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  199 

These  consist  of  bands  of  men  regularly  organized  to 
proceed  to  any  part  of  the  country  where  their  services 
may  be  demanded  to  take  the  places  of  men  on  strike. 
They  are,  in  one  sense,  workingmen,  but  they  are, 
generally  speaking,  a  low  variety  of  the  proletariat. 
They  are  ready  to  sell  their  labor  for  the  use  of  the 
capitalist  against  the  recognized  fighting  force  of  the 
working  class.  There  are  said  to  be  two  bureaus  in 
New  York  for  the  registration  and  organization  of 
strike  breakers.  They  have  been  thus  described  by 
a  journalist:  "Numbers  of  the  adventure  loving  men 
are  well  to  do,  among  them  are  some  of  really  good 
education:  as  a  class  they  average  high  as  men  to  be 
depended  upon  to  take  risks  and  obey  orders.  Most 
of  them  are  glad  to  leave  good  employment  when  a 
call  comes,  for  the  love  of  adventure  irresistibly  draws 
them."  (Saturday  Evening  Post,  November  5th,  1904). 
When  the  above  was  written,  the  statement  was  made 
that  there  were  fifteen  thousand  men  enrolled  in  New 
York  who  were  ready  to  take  strike-breakers'  pay.  It 
is  very  doubtful  if  any  reliance  can  be  placed  upon 
these  figures.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  every  reason 
to  think  that  they  are  grossly  exaggerated.  With  re- 
spect to  the  character  of  the  men  engaged  in  this  oc- 
cupation, they  are  by  no  means  the  fire-eating  para- 
gons so  graphically  described.  On  the  contrary,  they 
are  for  the  most  part  incompetent  and  degenerate 
ne'er-do-wells,  whose  presence,  under  the  protection  of 
the  police  and  militia,  only  serves  to  make  a  show  of 
activity  in  the  works  where  they  are  employed.  That 
there  are  desperadoes  and  ruffians  in  their  ranks  to 
whom  murder  is  not  by  any  means  detestable  is  true 
enough.  It  is  also  unquestionable  that  there  is  a  cer- 


200          THE    RISE   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

tain  proportion  of  good  workmen  whom  the  cupidity 
and  stupidity  of  the  leaders  of  the  trades  unions  have 
compelled  to  "scab"  for  very  livelihood's  sake.  In 
the  formation  of  strike-breakers'  organization,  the 
capitalists  have  taken  advantage  of  the  weaknesses  and 
sins  of  the  present  trades  union  movement.  Other- 
wise such  a  project  would  have  been  impossible  of 
accomplishment,  even  to  the  limited  degree  in  which 
it  is  now  being  carried  on.  Twenty  years  ago,  as  has 
been  seen,  the  capitalists  hired  mercenary  bands  of 
Pinkertons  to  achieve  their  purpose  in  times  of  strike 
withal ;  now  an  attempt  is  being  made  to  supply  the 
enemies  of  the  industrial  proletariat  from  the  ranks 
of  the  industrial  proletariat  itself,  and  to  crush  labor- 
ers organized  under  proletarian  auspices  by  means  of 
laborers  organized  under  capitalistic  control.  One  of 
the  most  notorious  leaders  of  the  "strike-breakers," 
Farley,  has  declared  that  during  the  nine  years  that 
he  has  been  in  the  strike-breaking  business,  he  has 
had  from  thirty  to  forty  thousand  men  on  his  payroll. 
No  particular  reliance  can,  however,  be  placed  on  these 
statements.  How  far  the  strike-breaking  enterprise  is 
a  practical  success  must  necessarily  be  merely  sup- 
position except  to  those  actually  engaged  in  its  organ- 
ization, and  they  are  not  likely  to  disclose  its  secrets. 
It  is  evident,  however,  that  any  such  organized  attempt 
to  supply  the  places  of  strikers  must  tend  to  make  the 
operation  of  a  strike  confined  to  one  craft  or  to  a  single 
locality  all  the  more  difficult,  especially  when  coupled 
with  the  existence  of  a  vast  chronically  unemployed 
mass  which  necessity  drives  to  "scab"  if  assured  01 
sufficient  protection  from  the  onslaughts  of  strikers. 

Besides    these    active    fighting    agencies    against 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  201 

trades  unionism,  the  capitalistic  organizations  also  de- 
vised an  intelligence  bureau  for  the  purpose  of  spying 
upon  and  keeping  in  touch  with  the  leaders  and  plans 
of  the  trades  unions.  One  company  for  example  call- 
ing itself  "The  Corporation  Auxiliary  Company"  un- 
dertook to  provide  men  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  ac- 
cess to  the  unions  and  practicing  espionage  in  the 
interests  of  the  employers. 

All  this  aggressive  action  on  the  part  of  the  capi- 
talists did  not  fail  to  affect  seriously  the  power  and 
effectiveness  of  the  pure  and  simple  trades  unions. 
Their  value  as  a  defensive  means  was  much  impaired 
and  such  reputation  as  still  remained  to  them  as  offen- 
sive weapons  was  practically  destroyed.  Vast  num- 
bers of  men  during  1903  and  1904  returned  to  work 
under  the  conditions  of  the  "open  shop."  In  one  case, 
that  of  the  International  Harvester  Company  at  Chi- 
cago, seven  thousand  men  went  back  beaten  after  a 
strike.  In  the  car  shops  of  the  Pullman  Company  two 
thousand  men  agreed  to  accept  a  cut  of  from  ten  to 
twenty  per  cent.  About  the  same  time  the  Inland 
Steel  Company,  the  Illinois  Steel  Company,  the  Re- 
public Iron  and  Steel  Company,  and  the  concerns  in 
the  Chicago  Metal  Trades  Associations  succeeded  in 
cutting  wages,  although  the  cost  of  living,  as  has  been 
already  pointed  out  had  advanced  considerably.  About 
the  same  time  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company  at  Pitts- 
burg  issued  an  order  to.  its  superintendents  instructing 
them  not  to  give  employment  to  men  under  thirty-five 
years  of  age  in  some  departments,  and  fixed  the  age- 
limit  at  forty  in  others.  A  curious  example  of  the 
perhaps  unconscious  flunkeyism  of  the  scientists  with 
respect  to  the  requirements  of  the  industrial  capi- 


202         THE   RISE   OF  THE  AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

talists  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  a  year  or  two 
thereafter  a  certain  Dr.  Osier,  a  doctor  of  medicine  of 
considerable  repute,  declared  that  forty  years  marked 
the  practical  limit  of  human  usefulness.  This  remark 
finds  a  curious  echo  in  Bernard  Shaw's  ridiculous 
statement  in  "Man  and  Superman"  that  every  man 
over  forty  is  a  scoundrel.  The  Carnegie  Company  may 
therefore  claim  to  have  the  support  of  both  physician  and 
satirist. 

The  fact  that  the  trades  unions  had  practically  doubled 
their  members  between  the  years  1900  and  1904  had 
apparently  no  effect  in  stopping  the  force  of  the  at- 
tack. An  interesting  example  of  the  speed  with  which 
the  courts  respond  to  the  needs  of  the  capitalist  class 
is  seen  in  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
states  of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  to  the  effect  that  every 
agreement  for  the  exclusive  employment  of  trades 
union  members  is  void.  The  bench  was  quick  to  take 
cognizance  of  the  claims  of  the  doctrine  of  the  "open 
shop"as  soon  as  it  became  apparent  that  its  supporters 
could  show  any  positive  gains. 

It  will  be  remarked  that  while  the  greater  capital- 
ism derived  such  benefits  as  could  be  obtained  from 
the  losses  of  the  trades  unions  in  their  struggles  with 
the  organizations  and  associations  already  mentioned, 
its  chiefs  were  much  wiser  in  their  generation  than  the 
petty  bourgeois  who  opposed  the  trades  union  move- 
ment. They  recognized  in  the  trades  unions  a  force 
which  they  might  use  to  their  own  advantage  by  the 
employment  of  proper  diplomacy.  The  susceptibilty 
of  the  trades  union  chiefs  to  flattery  and  in  some  cases 
to  corruption  suggested  a  remedy  superior  to  the  use 
of  force  and  disruption.  It  was  obvious  that  labor 


THE  PERIOD  OF  CORRUPTION  203 

organization  in  some  form  or  other  was  an  absolute 
necessity  against  which  it  were  folly  to  contend.  To 
disrupt  a  labor  organization,  to  get  the  "open  shop" 
even,  did  not  touch  the  fringe  of  the  question.  The 
men  would  certainly  organize  themselves  afresh,  for 
their  association  in  daily  toil  imposed  upon  them  the 
necessity  of  such  organization.  The  idea  that  men 
were  employed  as  single  and  individual  units  was  the 
crassest  stupidity  contradicted  by  the  very  organiza- 
tion rendered  necessary  by  the  machine  organization. 
The  greater  capitalism,  with  all  its  articulations  and 
ramifications,  its  development  as  a  social  entity,  its 
subjugation  of  the  individual  pants  to  the  necessities 
of  the  organism,  had  been  compulsorily  brought  into 
being  as  the  result  of  economic  forces.  The  chiefs, 
therefore,  of  the  greater  industry  could  well  under- 
stand the  necessity  of  labor  organization.  They  were 
well  content  to  have  labor  organized  but  it  was  their 
aim  as  statesmen  of  the  capitalistic  system  to  see  that 
such  organization  of  labor  was  subsidiary  and  inci- 
dental to  the  organization  of  the  greater  capitalism. 
To  persuade  the  labor  movement  that  it  could  work 
alongside  of  and  in  conjunction  with  the  capitalist 
organizations  was  a  feat  worthy  of  the  genius  of  the 
greatest  of  the  capitalist  leaders.  The  individual  mer- 
chant or  manufacturer  could  not  afford  to  take  this 
view.  His  existence  was  threatened  by  the  great 
combinations.  They,  by  virtue  of  their  wealth,  their 
superior  equipment,  their  national  orgainzation  and 
their  influence  and  association  with  the  transportation 
monopolies,  which  enabled  them  to  secure  a  discrimi- 
nation of  rates  in  their  favor,  were  forever  impinging 
upon  the  smaller  individual  producers.  The  latter  were 


204:         THE    RISE   OF    THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

ground  between  the  upper  and  nether  millstones.  They 
could  not  afford  the  loss  involved  in  a  protracted 
strike  and  any  gam  on  the  part  of  their  laborers 
implied  a  devouring  of  that  small  margin  of  profit 
which  was  constantly  threatened  by  the  encroachments 
of  the  corporations.  The  greater  capitalism  proposed 
to  accelerate  the  work  of  destroying  the  individual 
small  producers  and  traders  with  the  help  of  the 
trades  unions. 

A  tendency  had  been  noticeable  for  some  time  on  the 
part  of  the  trades  unionists  and  great  capitalists  nota- 
bly in  the  railroad  and  coal  industries,  to  come  together 
and  make  an  agreement  with  respect  to  wages  and 
hours.  The  employers  were  thereupon  assured  of  im- 
munity from  strikes  and  the  disturbance  of  their  busi- 
ness. The  particular  craft  also  which  profited  by  this 
agreement  could  always  plead  its  contract  with  the  em- 
ployer as  an  excuse  for  not  coming  to  the  assistance 
of  other  crafts  which  might  be  involved  in  a  dispute 
with  that  particular  employer.  The  principle  of  "col- 
lective bargaining,"  it  will  be  observed,  brought  much 
power  to  the  trades  union  chiefs  and  at  the  same  time 
tended  to  break  down  the  wall  of  antagonism  which 
naturally  exists  between  the  employing  and  the  work- 
ing-class. From  this  point  there  was  but  a  step  to 
closer  association  between  the  lords  of  capitalism  and 
the  leaders  of  the  labor  organizations.  Hanna  had  the 
boldness  and  the  ability  to  take  the  step  and  by  form- 
ing a  joint  society  of  laborers  and  capitalists  to  involve 
the  latter  with  the  former  and  to  prevent  the  devel- 
opment of  the  warfare  which  threatened  the  country 
by  their  continued  antagonism.  To  this  end  he  or- 
ganized the  National  Civic  Federation,  a  body  in  which 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  205 

representative  capitalists  and  trades  union  leaders  held 
joint  conference.  Its  object  as  stated  by  Hanna  was 
to  create  a  better  feeling  between  employer  and  em- 
ployed and  to  prevent  industrial  warfare.  This,  if 
carried  out,  would  on  the  one  hand  result  in  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  trades  union  movement  to  the  great- 
er capitalism,  and  on  the  other  the  prevention  of  what 
Hanna  particularly  dreaded,  the  formation  of  an  inde- 
pendent political  labor  movement.  A  notable  result  of 
this  action  has  been  the  tendency  on  the  part  of  the 
chief  political  representative  of  the  greater  capitalism 
to  intervene  in  labor  disputes.  President  Roosevelt, 
for  example,  brought  pressure  to  bear  in  the  settlement 
of  the  great  coal-strike.  When  in  the  spring  of  1906 
another  coal  strike  was  threatened,  he  wrote  a  personal 
letter  to  John  Mitchell,  the  leader  of  the  miners,  and 
based  his  interference  upon  the  ground  that  Mitchell 
was  a  member  of  the  Civic  Federation.  Trades  union- 
ists and  capitalists  met  at  the  same  table  and  hostili- 
ties were  apparently  smothered  in  social  intercourse. 
It  is  obvious  however  that  the  losers  by  this  were  the 
trades  unionists  who  were  subjected  to  much  loss  of 
dignity.  They  perhaps  found  some  compensation  in  the 
association  for  there  seems  to  have  been  a  sort  of  epi- 
demic of  snobbery  among  the  union  leaders  at  that 
period.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  National  Civic  Fed- 
eration was  the  most  deadly  and  insidious  foe  that 
manaced  the  labor  movement.  All  the  active  opposi- 
tion of  the  various  organizations  heretofore  examined 
becomes  insignificant  in  comparison  with  the  danger  to 
an  honest  and  free  development  of  the  proletarian  or- 
ganizations which  lay  in  the  flattery  and  seduction  of 
its  chiefs.  The  effect  of  this  amalgamation  of  trades 


206         THE   RISE    OF   THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

unionism  with  the  greater  capitalism  has  been  thus 
described  by  a  very  competent  and  clear  observer  of 
labor  phenomena: — 

"The  corrupting  and  deadening  influence  of  the  Civic  Federa- 
tion alliance  is  spreading  like  a  cankering  sore  ever  into  new 
fields.  It  is  now  plainly  evident  that  the  only  road  to  preference 
and  power  within  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  lies  through 
the  capitalist-controlled  channels  of  the  Civic  Federation.  It  is 
a  spectacle  unique  in  the  annals  of  labor.  Never  before  were 
the  politics  of  the  organization  of  labor  determined  around  the 
mahogany  tables  of  the  master  class."  ("Plain  Words  to  Social- 
ists"—"Industrial  Worker,"  March,  1906.) 

There  can  be  little  question  that  the  maintenance  of 
these  semi-official  relations  with  the  greater  capitalism 
must  in  the  long  run  tend  to  emasculate  and  destroy  the 
force  of  the  labor-movement.  An  injury  is  thus  inflicted 
upon  the  working  class,  which  is  in  the  position  of  a  liti- 
gant whose  advocate  is  indulging  in  independent  friendly 
approachment  with  the  enemy.  Social  development, 
which  requires  the  free  play  of  all  social  and  economic 
forces,  is  impeded.  Of  course,  the  institution  of  the  Civic 
Federation  met  with  the  approval  of  the  ethicists  and  the 
Falklands  of  the  present  day.  These  people  are  like 
Falkland,  anxious  to  maintain  an  artificial  status  quo, 
and  this  cannot  and,  indeed,  ought  not  to  be  maintained. 
The  result  would  be  a  permanent  oligarchy  resting  on  a 
basis  of  proletarian  retainers.  The  great  mass  of  the 
working  class,  denied  admittance  to  the  favored  and  pam- 
pered unions,  would  be  in  much  the  same  position  as 
were  the  Roman  farmers  and  artisans  when  the  forma- 
tion of  the  latifundia  and  the  employment  of  slave  labor 
on  a  large  scale  had  deprived  them  of  their  landed  pos- 
sessions and  their  ability  to  make  a  living  as  free  work- 
men. It  is  clear  that  no  social  progress  is  involved  in 


THE    PERIOD    OF    COTRUPTION  207 

such  a  condition  of  affairs.  A  hard  and  fast  "industrial 
feudalism"  of  the  kind  here  suggested  would  result  in 
national  deterioration  and  decay.  That  there  is  a  ten- 
dency on  the  part  of  the  younger  generation  of  Ameri- 
can greater  capitalists  to  regard  themselves  somewhat  in 
the  light  of  members  of  the  Roman  aristocracy  is  be- 
yond question,  and  that  the  popularity  of  the  works  of 
Nietzsche  in  that  class  has  contributed  to  as  well  as  fur- 
nished evidence  of  that  state  of  mind  appears  to  be  very 
probable.  Given  an  exceedingly  wealthy  and  politically 
powerful  class,  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  hand  an 
organized  proletariat  whose  leaders  are  willing  and  able 
to  prostitute  the  working  class  movement  in  the  interests 
of  that  wealthy  class,  and  are  at  the  same  time  eager  to 
advance  their  own  material  and  political  well-being,  and 
it  will  be  readily  seen  that  the  conjunction  of  such  pheno- 
mena is  very  threatening,  not  only  to  the  future  develop- 
ment of  social  and  personal  liberty  in  the  country,  but 
also  to  the  liberties  of  the  citizens  at  the  present  time. 
The  future  of  the  United  States  as  a  democracy  rests  in 
the  hand  of  the  working  class.  The  middle-class  has, 
as  has  already  been  shown,  failed  to  hold  its  own,  and  is 
incapable  of  further  serious  struggle.  Unless  the  organ- 
ized working  class  keeps  up  a  ceaselessly  persistent  fight, 
the  liberties  which  are  supposed  to  be  the  necessary  con- 
comitants of  a  democracy  must  be  swept  away. 

As  an  example  of  the  results  of  this  inefficient  and 
truckling  trades  union  policy,  the  behavior  of  the  domi- 
nant faction  of  capitalists  in  the  State  of  Colorado  may 
be  mentioned.  In  each  one  of  the  periods  of  capitalistic 
development  in  the  United  States,  some  conspicuously 
illegal  and  outrageous  attack  has  been  made  upon  organ- 
ized labor.  In  each  one  of  these  instances  the  safe- 


208         THE    RISE   OF    THE    AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

guards  which  the  law  and  the  constitution  have  wrapped 
around  the  individual  citizen  have  been  torn  away,  and 
the  members  of  labor  organizations  left  at  the  mercy  of 
their  enemies.  In  the  case  of  the  Chicago  labor  troubles 
in  1887,  which  culminated  in  the  hanging  of  several 
prominent  agitators  in  behalf  of  an  eight  hour  day,  the 
principle  of  trial  by  jury  was  violated,  and  the  illegality 
was  so  notorious  that  a  subsequent  Governor  of  Illinois 
released  such  of  the  convicted  men  as  still  remained  in 
prison.  In  the  American  Railway  Union  strike  of  1894, 
the  principle  of  trial  by  jury  was  altogether  denied,  and 
new  and  strange  legal  means  were  employed  to  secure 
the  conviction  and  puishment  of  the  leaders  of  the  work- 
ing class.  But  in  Colorado  in  1904,  the  most  elementary 
human  rights  were  altogether  disregarded,  and  men  were 
subjected  to  outrages  unheard  of,  except  in  a  state  of  ac- 
tual war,  and  only  then,  under  conditions  hardly  com- 
patible with  the  usages  of  modern  warfare. 

In  the  Colorado  troubles  a  conspicuous  part  was  taken 
by  the  Citizens'  Alliance,  and  a  brief  outline  of  its  ac- 
tions will  afford  an  illustration  of  the  daring  and  bru- 
tality of  that  organization  when  circumstances  combine 
to  give  it  a  position  of  power.  A  strike  of  miners  and 
smelters  occurred  in  that  state.  The  Citizens'  Alliance 
which  was  composed  of  the  dominant  capitalistic  inter- 
ests, railroads,  mining  and  smelting,  together  with  rep- 
resentatives of  the  "respectable"  classes  generally  un- 
dertook to  employ  its  social  and  financial  resources  in 
crushing  out  the  strike.  The  whole  political  force  of  the 
state  was  at  its  disposal.  These  it  employed  in  such  a 
fashion  as  to  nullify  law,  and  to  raise  the  question  which 
almost  passed  into  a  slang  expression,  "Is  Colorado  in 
the  United  States?"  Independent  mine  owners  who  em- 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  209 

ployed  union  labor  and  acceded  to  the  demands  of  the  or- 
ganization were  driven  out  of  business.  The  militia  was 
called  out  without  the  least  excuse  and  employed  in  the 
most  brutal  fashion.  The  property  of  individual  citi- 
zens and  of  trades  unions  was  destroyed  forcibly  and 
without  any  process  of  law;  domiciles  were  invaded  and 
searched  without  warrant;  attacks  upon  the  virtue  of 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  union  men  occurred ;  men 
were  thrown  into  prison  without  warrant  of  law  and  kept 
there  without  charges  being  filed  against  them;  citizens 
were  forcibly  placed  on  trains  and  deported  from  the 
state  under  military  escort;  they  were  set  down  miles 
from  anywhere  and  compelled  to  walk  for  refusing  to 
abandon  their  unions;  they  were  enclosed  in  bull-pens 
and  tied  to  posts;  prisoners  were  not  even  brought  to 
trial,  but  were  dismissed  at  the  whim  of  the  Citizens' 
Alliance  without  any  chance  of  legal  remedy  for  the  out- 
rages to  which  they  had  been  subjected ;  officials  were  de- 
prived of  their  offices  by  force  and  substitutes  put  in 
their  places ;  judges  who  opposed  the  Citizens'  Alliance, 
endeavored  to  set  the  machinery  of  the  law  in  motion 
against  these  illegalities  were  driven  off  by  mobs  of 
militia  and  armed  rapscallions.  When  the  conflict  was 
over  and  the  unions  had  been  crushed  an  attempt  was 
made  in  some  instances  to  substantiate  the  charges 
against  the  members  of  the  unions,  but  in  every  case  the 
prosecution  failed  miserably,  and  in  very  few  instances 
did  a  trial  take  place.  It  is  a  striking  commentary  upon 
the  condition  of  trades  unionism  throughout  the  country 
that  these  outrages  could  continue  unavenged.  With  all 
its  numerical  force,  the  labor  movement  of  the  United 
States  showed  its  lack  of  the  essentials  of  solidarity  and 
its  incompetence.  It  must  ever  remain  a  disgrace  to  the 


210         THE   RISE   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PROLETARIAN 

American  labor  movement  that  these  Colorado  miners 
suffered  these  outrages  and  indignities.  No  more  com- 
plete commentary  could  be  written  upon  the  recent  man- 
agement of  the  trades  union  movement  than  the  simple 
story  of  the  reign  of  the  Citizens'  Alliance  in  Colorado. 
Besides,  it  will  hardly  be  controverted  that  the  tame- 
ness  shown  at  the  annual  conventions  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  lack 
of  spirit  displayed  in  the  Colorado  affair,  are  evidences 
of  tendencies  to  decay  in  that  body. 

Among  other  factors  which  had  their  influence  in 
disheartening  the  trades  union  movement,  in  its  pure 
and  simple  form,  may  be  noted  the  famous  Taff  Vale 
decision  in  England.  This  held  the  funds  of  a  union  liable 
for  damages  inflicted  upon  an  employer  by  members  of 
a  union  during  a  strike.  The  effect  of  this  has  been  so 
marked  that  an  effort  has  been  made  to  offset  it  by  fresh 
legislation  in  the  British  Parliament.  A  law  suggested 
will  be  directed  to  the  taking  away  of  a  right  of  action 
for  the  recovery  of  damages  sustained  by  any  person  or 
persons  by  reason  of  the  action  or  actions  of  a  trade 
union.  Although,  the  Taff  Vale  decision  has,  up  to  the 
present  not  been  followed  in  this  country  there  remains 
an  ever  present  dread  on  the  part  of  the  unionists  that  it 
may  become  American  law,  and  it  is  easily  seen  that 
under  our  system  of  government  such  a  decision  cannot 
be  by  any  means  so  easily  remedied  as  under  the  Brit- 
ish system  of  parliamentary  supremacy. 

The  ill-feeling  between  the  unions  and  the  militia 
has  continued  to  grow,  and  the  recent  employment  of 
the  "citizen  soldiery,"  particularly  during  1903,  has  in- 
creased the  dislike.  This  tendency  to  conflict  between 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  211 

unionists  and  militiamen  has  made  itself  felt  in  states  as 
wide  apart  as  Pennsylvania  and  Texas. 

But  with  all  the  failure  of  the  trades  union  move- 
ment, the  working  class  shovyed  an  ever  increasing  ten- 
dency to  enter  the  field  of  independent  politics,  and  to 
shift  the  centre  of  conflict  from  the  economic  to  the  po- 
litical field.  This  tendency  was  precisely  the  opposite 
of  that  contemplated  or  desired  by  the  industrial  lords. 
Hanna,  writing  in  the  National  Magazine  for  January, 
190-i,  made  use  of  the  following  words:  "The  menace 
of  to-day,  as  I  view  it,  is  the  spread  of  the  spirit  of  so- 
cialism— one  of  those  things  which  is  only  half  under- 
stood, and  which  is  more  or  less  used  to  inflame  the  popu- 
lar mind  against  the  individual  initiative  and  personal 
energy  which  has  hitherto  been  the  very  essence  of  Ameri- 
can progress."  That  this  apprehension  was  justified  ap- 
peared in  the  following  November,  when  over  three  hun- 
dred thousand  votes  were  polled  for  Eugene  V.  Debs  as 
presidential  candidate  of  the  Socialist  Party.  This  party 
had  succeeded  in  establishing  a  propaganda  of  very  con- 
siderable scope  and  effectiveness  throughout  the  country. 
Its  papers  increased  in  number  and  influence,  and  the 
reprints  of  German  and  English  socialistic  writings  which 
had  formerly  furnished  the  chief  literary  material  of  the 
movement  were  augmented  by  matter  of  home  produc- 
tion bearing  more  closely  upon  distinctly  American  con- 
ditions. Speakers  multiplied,  and  the  last  vestige  of  for- 
eign initiative  vanished.  Formerly  the  movement  had 
been  distinctly  exotic ;  now  a  noticeably  indigenous  move- 
ment began  to  make  itself  obvious.  This  American 
movement  is  more  vigorous,  and  in  some  senses  more 
extreme  than  any  which  has  hitherto  appeared  in  Europe. 
The  American  conditions  have  naturally  produced  this 


212        THE   RISE  OF   THE  AMERICAN   PROLETARIAN 

result.  The  vestiges  of  European  feudalism  still  neces- 
sitate a  certain  "liberalism,"  and  afford  a  neutral  ground 
which  can  be  occupied  at  least  temporarily  by  the  work- 
ing and  middle-classes.  In  this  country,  liberalism  has 
had  its  day,  and  its  ineffectiveness  and  self-destruction 
are  very  obvious.  There  is  no  middle  ground,  the  work- 
ing class  is  obliged  to  lock  horns  with  the  greater  capi- 
talism. Directly  this  condition  arises,  we  are  face  to 
face,  not  with  democratic  reform,  but  with  social  revo- 
lution. The  invasion  of  the  field  of  politics  by  working- 
men  who  intend  to  possess  themselves  of  the  government 
in  order  to  carry  out  an  economic  programme  which 
necessitates  the  continual  dispossession  of  the  capitalists 
of  that  which  they  have  hitherto  considered  to  be  law- 
fully their  own  implies  the  overthrow  of  the  present  sys- 
tem— revolution  in  short.  Herein  is  the  very  important 
distinction  between  what  may  be  called  the  reform  and 
the  socialist  movements.  The  former  attacks  the  power 
of  the  greater  capitalist,  but  attributes  it  to  illegality. 
It  would  enforce  the  laws  and  thus,  as  it  thinks,  restore 
the  pristine  virtues  of  the  American  democracy.  This  is 
in  fact  the  basis  upon  which  nearly  all  latter  day  jour- 
nalists and  magazine  writers  who  endeavor  to  supply 
the  popular  demand  for  attacks  upon  the  greater  capital- 
ism base  their  arguments.  The  Socialist  however  de- 
nounces the  entire  body  of  law  upon  which  the  modern 
state  rests.  He  considers  it  to  be  founded  upon  obsolete 
and  worn  out  notions,  false  conceptions,  in  short,  of  so- 
ciety. These  arose  under  conditions  differing  entirely 
from  those  which  prevail  to-day.  So  that  to-day,  as  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  is  a  con- 
flict between  two  distinct  and  incompatible  views  of 
law  and  society.  These  views  must  necessarily  clash. 


THE    PERIOD    OF    CORRUPTION  213 

There  is  no  need  to  abolish  the  law  which  established 
itself  upon  the  economic  necessities  of  the  founders  of 
the  Republic.  It  has  already  been  abolished.  It  suffered 
the  death  penalty  at  the  hands  of  the  greater  capitalism 
as  those  who  trusted  in  its  efficacy  are  compelled  to  ad- 
mit. The  Socialist  movement,  which  is  merely  the  po- 
litical expression  of  the  aspirations  of  the  working  class 
is  therefore  the  product  of  the  material  conditions  which 
have  developed  the  greater  capitalism.  It  is  thus  a 
natural  phenomenon  and  not  as  the  opponents  of  the 
dominant  greater  capitalism  as  well  as  the  middle  class 
writers  and  politicians  endeavor  to  convey  an  artificial 
and  imported  agitation.  It  will  be  remarked  that  in  Great 
Britain  where  the  socialist  movement  was  for  many 
years  exotic,  there  has  been  of  late  a  very  marked  ten- 
dency in  the  same  direction  as  in  the  United  States. 
The  labor  vote  at  the  last  English  elections  amounted 
to  about  the  same  as  the  presidential  vote  at  the  last  gen- 
eral election  in  this  country.  We  may  therefore  consider 
it  a  probability,  a  certainty  indeed,  that  the  Socialist  vote 
will  continue  to  grow,  and  that  the  proletarian  movement, 
whose  feeble  beginning  have  been  traced  in  the  preced- 
ing pages  will  assume  an  ever  increasing  and  finally 
dominant  importance  in  the  politics  of  the  country. 


OF   ' 

UNIVEFT 

OF 


ANCIENT  SOCIETY 


A  Revolutionary  Book  Which  Proves  that  Wealth  and 

Poverty   Are    NOT   Natural   and   Necessary 

But  a  Passing  Incident  in  the  History 

of  the  Human  Race. 

The  wage  system,  under  which  the  capitalist  takes 
all  the  earnings  of  the  wage  worker  except  a  bare 
living,  is  very  new.  In  most  countries  it  is  less  than  a 
hundred  years  old;  even  in  England,  where  it  first 
started,  it  is  only  two  or  three  hundred  years  old. 

Before  it  was  the  feudal  system,  where  most  of  the 
people  were  serfs,  working  on  land  belonging  to  a 
lord,  and  giving  the  lord  most  of  what  they  earned  in 
return  for  permission  to  stay  on  the  land.  But  that 
system  started  not  much  more  than  a  thousand  years 
ago. 

Before  that  was  the  system  of  chattel  slavery,  where 
those  who  did  the  work  were  the  personal  property 
of  the  owning  class,  and  could  be  flogged,  tortured  or 
killed  if  they  did  not  labor  in  a  way  to  satisfy  their 
masters.  But  that  system  is  only  a  few  thousand  years 
old.  What  happened  before  that? 

Not  long  ago  there  was  a  very  simple  and  conclu- 
sive answer  to  this  question.  It  was  that  Adam  was 
created  exactly  4,004  years  before  the  Christian  era, 
so  that  there  was  no  time  before  the  beginning  of 
slavery  to  account  for. 

But  the  study  of  the  rocks  that  make  up  the  earth's 
crust  has  within  the  last  fifty  years  proved  beyond  a 
doubt  that  man  has  lived  on  the  earth  for  a  million 
years,  perhaps  much  longer,  but  at  least  this  length 
of  time. 


11  ANCIENT    SOCIETY 

How  did  men  live  through  all  those  countless  years  ? 
It  is  a  great  question,  and  in  answer  to  it  a  great  book 
has  been  written. 

There  is  just  one  American  who  is  recognized  by  the 
universities  of  Europe  as  one  of  the  world's  great 
Scientists.  That  American  is  Lewis  H.  Morgan,  and 
his  title  to  greatness  is  found  in  a  book  first  published 
thirty  years  ago.  Its  title  is :  Ancient  Society ;  or,  Re- 
searches in  the  Lines  of  Human  Progress;  From  Sav- 
agery Through  Barbarism  to  Civilization. 

There  had  been  previous  studies  of  the  life  of  man 
before  the  days  of  written  history,  but  Morgan's  work 
revolutionized  this  science  as  completely  as  Darwin's 
works  revolutionized  biology  or  Marx's  "Capital"  revo- 
lutionized economics. 

The  underlying  principle  of  Morgan's  book  is  the 
law  of  historical  materialism  familiar  to  International 
socialists,  namely,  that  always  and  everywhere  the  way 
people  have  supplied  themselves  with  food  and  the  other 
necessities  of  life  has  determined  their  way  of  living  and 
their  way  of  thinking. 

Recognizing  this  principle,  Morgan  divides  the  va- 
rious stages  of  human  development,  according  to  the 
development  reached  in  industrial  arts,  into  savagery, 
barbarism  and  civilization.  Again  he  subdivides  sav- 
agery into  its  lower,  middle  and  upper  status,  and  di- 
vides the  period  of  barbarism  in  the  same  manner.  The 
first  part  of  the  book  is  taken  up  with  this  classification, 
and  with  a  study  of  the  arts  of  life  as  developed  in  the 
various  social  stages. 

Part  II  of  the  book  is  on  the  Growth  of  the  Idea  of 
Government.  It  is  a  clear,  simple,  fascinating  story  of 
the  little  groups  of  equals  which  were  the  first  expres- 
sion of  man's  social  life  on  earth,  ages  before  the  idea 


ANCIENT    SOCIETY  ill 

of  property  or  of  ruler  and  ruled  had  taken  root.  And 
it  tells  of  the  causes  which  finally  brought  about  radi- 
cal changes  in  these  groups,  and  prepared  the  way  for 
a  State  to  guard  the  interests  of  the  rising  ruling  class 
and  keep  the  working  class  in  subjection. 

Part  III  tells  of  the  Growth  of  the  Idea  of  the  Fam- 
ily, and  it  is  the  classic  statement  of  a  long  series  of 
vitally  important  facts  without  which  no  intelligent 
discussion  of  the  "Woman  Question"  is  possible.  It 
traces  the  successive  forms  of  marriage  that  have 
existed,  each  corresponding  to  a  certain  industrial 
stage.  It  proves  that  the  laws  governing  the  relations 
of  the  sexes  have  constantly  been  changing  in  response 
to  industrial  changes,  and  thus  explains  why  it  is  that 
they  are  changing  still.  It  shows  the  historical  reason 
for  the  "double  standard  of  morals"  for  men  and 
women,  over  which  amiable  reformers  have  wailed  in 
vain.  It  points  the  way  to  a  cleaner,  freer,  happier  life 
for  women  in  the  future,  through  the  triumph  of  the 
working  class.  All  this  is  shown  indirectly  through  his- 
torical facts;  the  reader  is  left  to  draw  his  own  con- 
clusions. 

Part  IV  tells  of  the  Growth  of  the  Idea  of  Property, 
and  is  more  distinctly  related  than  any  other  portion  of 
the  book  to  the  usual  propaganda  of  socialism.  The 
greatest  obstacle  to  the  spread  of  socialist  ideas  is  the 
dull,  hopeless  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  mass  of 
toilers  that  things  always  have  gone  on  about  as  now 
with  rich  and  poor,  owners  and  workers,  exploiters  and 
exploited,  and  that  therefore  they  probably  will  go  on 
so  till  the  end  of  time.  But  this  is  a  terrible  mistake, 
or  rather  it  was  a  mistake.  It  has  been  so  thoroughly 
disproved  that  to  repeat  it  now  is  a  damnable  lie.  Here 
in  this  closing  part  of  Morgan's  work  are  the  facts 
which  prove  it  to  be  a  lie. 

Morgan's  Ancient  Society  was  published  thirty  years 
ago.  A  generation  of  scientists  have  fought  over  it, 
and  the  author's  position  has  been  sustained  at  every 
essential  point.  But  the  book  has  not  yet  been  read  by 
the  class  to  whom  it  means  the  most,  the  class  of  those 
who  live  by  their  work. 


Iv  ANCIENT    SOCIETY 

The  price  has  always  been  four  dollars  a  copy,  a  price 
no  laborer  could  afford  to  pay.  Consequently  the  book, 
while  famous  among  European  scholars,  has  been  un- 
known among  American  workingmen. 

The  copyright  has  now  expired,  and  a  socialist  co- 
operative publishing  house  is  publishing  a  new  edition, 
from  new  plates,  at  a  price  which  is  not  intended  to 
bring  in  profits,  but  to  give  the  widest  possible  circu- 
lation to  the  book. 

There  are  586  pages,  in  type  like  that  used  in  this 
circular.  The  paper  and  binding  are  equal  to  that  in 
our  edition  of  Marx's  Capital,  the  style  of  which  has 
given  universal  satisfaction.  We  have  fixed  the  retail 
price  at  $1.50.  But  our  co-operative  stockholders  get 
the  usual  discount,  that  is  to  say,  they  buy  the  book 
at  90  cents  postpaid,  or  75  cents  if  they  pay  the  cost  of 
transportation. 

To  introduce  the  book  at  once  to  the  widest  possible 
circle  of  readers  we  are  making  a  special  offer  that  sur- 
passes any  we  have  ever  before  been  able  to  make : 

For  $1.50  we  will  mail  Morgan's  Ancient  Society  and 
will  also  send  the  International  Socialist  Review  for 
one  year.  The  price  of  the  Review  alone  is  a  dollar  a 
year,  with  no  discount  even  to  stockholders.  This 
combination  offer  is  open  to  stockholders  and  non- 
stockholders alike.  There  is  no  profit  in  filling  orders 
at  this  price,  but  there  is  any  amount  of  propaganda  in 
it.  You  will  think  so  when  you  have  read  the  book. 

Extra  copies  of  this  leaflet  will  be  mailed  free  to  any 
one  who  will  promise  to  distribute  them.  Don't  ask 
for  more  than  you  can  put  where  they  will  probably  be 
read. 


CHARLES  H.  KERR.  &  COMPANY 

(Co-Operative) 
264  Kinzie  Street,  Chicago 


CAPITAL 

A   Critique  of  Political   Economy 

By  KARL  MARX 

The  Chicago  Daily  News  of  Feb.  12,  1907,  says: 

At  last,  after  a  lapse  of  years  which  is  fairly 
astounding,  the  American  reading  public  is  to  have 
its  opportunity  of  reading  the  complete  theory  of 
Karl  Marx  as  elaborated  by  Frederick  Engels,  and 
the  first  volume,  containing  the  stated  theory  of 
capitalist  production,  appears  as  the  first  of  four 
thick  crown  octavos.  The  translation  is  in  the 
main  that  of  Samuel  Moore  and  Edward  Aveling 
from  the  third  German  edition,  but,  in  order  to  make  it 
fully  authoritative,  it  has  been  revised  and  amplified  from 
the  fourth  German  edition  by  Ernest  Untermann.  The 
well-known  German  title,  "Das  Kapital,"  appears  in  Eng- 
lish as  "Capital:  A  Critique  of  Political  Economy,"  this 
specific  volume  being  designated  as  "The  Process  of  Cap- 
italist Production."  Of  the  style  preserved  in  the  transla- 
tion into  English  too  much  can  hardly  be  said.  It  is  un- 
usually bright  and  interesting,  with  evidences  of  humor 
and  good-natured  satire  on  nearly  every  page.  Consid- 
ering that  it  is  a  most  serious  treatise  on  political  econ- 
omy, "the  dismal  science"  of  Carlyle,  and  that  it  appeared 
originally  in  German,  not  a  language  which  lends  itself 
to  a  sprightly  treatment  of  ponderous  topics  in  most 
hands,  the  result  is  readable  to  a  degree.  The  novice  may 
therefore  approach  one  of  the  most  influential  works  of 
modern  times  without  fear  of  being  put  to  sleep  by  either 
the  manner  or  the  matter.  For  the  rest,  the  print  is  large 
and  unworn,  the  paper  good  and  the  book  as  compact  as 
its  size  permits.  The  publishers  deserve  all  praise  for  their 
enterprise. 

Volume  I,  described  in  this  notice,  was  published  in  De- 
cember, 1906.  Volume  II,  "The  Process  of  Capitalist 
Circulation,"  translated  by  Ernest  Untermann,  is  in  press 
as  this  pamphlet  is  being  printed,  and  should  be  ready 
about  April  15,  1907.  Price,  $2.00  per  volume,  including 
postage. 


Two  Books  By  Karl  Marx 


The  Civil  War  in  France.     By  Karl  Marx,  with  an 
Introduction  by  Frederick  Engels.  Paper,  25  cents. 

On  the  28th  of  May  (1871),  the  last  of  the  combatants 
of  the  Commune  were  crushed  by  superior  numbers  on 
the  heights  of  Belleville,  and  two  days  later,  on  the  30th, 
Marx  read  to  the  General  Council  of  the  International 
the  pamphlet  in  question,  in  which  the  historical  signifi- 
cance of  the  Paris  Commune  is  presented  in  short,  power- 
ful, and  in  such  incisive  and,  above  all,  such  true  phrases 
as  have  never  again  been  equaled  in  the  whole  of  the  ex- 
ttnsive  literature  on  the  subject — Engels'  Introduction. 

The  Eighteenth  Brumaire  of  Louis  Bonaparte.     By 
Karl  Marx.    Paper,  25  cents. 

This  is  a  history  of  the  revolution  of  1848  and  the  events 
from  that  time  to  1851,  when  Louis  Napoleon,  by  the 
famous  "coup  d'etat,"  established  himself  as  emperor  of 
France.  Marx  shows  the  economic  causes  and  the  con- 
flicting class  interests  underlying  the  events  related  by 
conventional  historians.  These  two  works  by  the  great- 
est of  socialist  writers  are  unique  in  the  light  thrown  on 
the  struggles  of  the  new-born  proletariat  of  Europe 
against  superior  force,  and  they  are  full  of  lessons  for 
the  coming  conflict.  Moreover,  Marx's  method  of  deal- 
ing with  history  and  current  events  in  these  works  is 
the  best  possible  introduction  to  the  essential  socialist 
principle  of  historical  materialism. 


The  Landmarks  of  Scientific  Socialism  (Anti-Dueh- 
rrng).  By  Frederick  Engels.  Translated  by  Aus- 
tin Lewis.  Cloth,  $1.00. 

The  Anti-Duehring  is  a  polemical  writing  by  Enge'.s, 
and  although  not  generally  known  among  English-speak- 
ing Socialists  is  in  many  respects  the  most  valuable  of 
Engels'  works.  It  is  the  reply  of  the  great  student  to  a 
book  issued  by  a  university  teacher,  Eugene  Duehring. 
This  writer  fancied  that  he  had  discovered  a  new  brand  of 
socialism,  which  differed  in  essential  respects  from  the 
scientific  socialism  of  which  Marx  and  Engels  were  the 
exponents.  Engels  traverses  the  theories  propounded  by 
Duehring  and  in  order  to  confute  them  is  obliged  to  state 
the  scientific  socialist  position.  This  is  what  makes  the 
book  so  useful  and  indeed  fascinating  to  the  socialist  stu- 
dent It  contains  passages  of  the  utmost  value.  Engels' 
clarity  of  reasoning  is  nowhere  more  apparent  than 
in  this  volume.  The  light  which  he  sheds  upon  the 
theories  of  Marx  and  himself  is  illuminative  of  much 
which  must  of  necessity  be  obscure  to  those  who 
are  only  familiar  with  the  better  known  socialist 
works.  This  particular  translation,  and  it  is  the 
only  English  translation,  has  aimed  at  presenting 
Engels'  positive  theories  and  to  that  end  much 
of  the  somewhat  savage  polemical  writing  has  been  omit- 
ted. The  book  is  improved  thereby,  as  much  of  this  writ- 
ing is  evanescent  and  a  real  detriment  to  the  work  as  a 
whole.  In  it  the  philosophical  basis  of  socialism  receives 
a  consideration  which  can  not  be  obtained  elsewhere.  The 
dialectic  philosophy  which  it  is  so  hard  for  the  average 
English  reading  student  to  become  acquainted  with  is  ex- 
pounded. The  treatment  of  economics  and  the  exposition 
of  the  surplus  value  theory  are  masterly.  Never  has  the 
socialist  case  appeared  so  strong  as  in  this  discussion. 


The  Ancient  Lowly:  A  History  of  the  Ancient  Work- 
ing People  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Adop- 
tion of  Christianity  by  Constantin.  By  C.  Osborne 
Ward.  Cloth,  two  volumes,  690  and  716  pages. 
Each,  $2.00.  Either  volume  sold  separately. 

Before  written  history  began,  society  was  already  di- 
vided into  exploiting  and  exploited  classes,  master  and 
slave,  lord  and  subject,  ruler  and  ruled.  And  from  the 
first  the  ruling  class  has  written  the  histories,  written 
them  in  accordance  with  its  own  interests  and  from  its 
own  point  of  view. 

To  arrive  at  the  real  story  of  the  life  of  the  oppressed 
classes  in  ancient  times  was  a  task  of  almost  incredible 
difficulties.  To  this  work  Osborne  Ward  gave  a  lifetime 
of  diligent  research,  and  his  discoveries  are  embodied  in 
the  two  volumes  entitled  The  Ancient  Lowly.  He  has 
gathered  together  into  a  connected  narrative  practically 
everything  pertaining  to  his  subject  in  the  published  liter- 
ature of  Greece  and  Rome,  including  in  his  inquiry  many 
rare  works  only  to  be  consulted  in  the  great  European  li- 
braries. But  he  did  not  stop  here.  Many  of  the  most 
important  records  of  the  ancient  labor  unions  are  pre- 
served only  in  the  form  of  stone  tablets  that  have  with- 
stood the  destructive  forces  of  the  centuries  and  the  author 
traveled  on  foot  many  hundreds  of  miles  around  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea,  deciphering  these  inscriptions. 

Perhaps  the  most  startling  of  his  conclusions  is  that 
Christianity  was  originally  a  movement  of  organized  labor. 
The  persecution  of  the  early  Christians  is  shown  to  have 
arisen  from  the  age-long  class  struggle  between  exploiters 
and  exploited.  And  the  most  dangerous  thing  about  the 
book  from  the  capitalist  view-point  is  that  the  author  does 
not  merely  make  assertions ;  he  proves  them. 


The  Universal  Kinship.  By  J.  Howard  Moore,  In- 
structor in  Zoology,  Crane  Manual  Training  High 
School.  Cloth,  $1.00. 

Mark  Twain  writes :  "The  Universal  Kinship  has  fur- 
nished me  several  days  of  deep  pleasure  and  satisfaction. 
It  has  compelled  my  gratitude  at  the  same  time,  since  it 
saves  me  the  labor  of  stating  my  own  long-cherished  opin- 
ions, reflections  and  resentments  by  doing  it  lucidly  and 
fervently  for  me."  , 

Send  for  The  Universal  Kinship.  It  may  do  the  same 
things  for  you.  It  is  a  work  on  evolution  by  a  thorough 
student  of  biology,  who,  by  a  strange  coincidence,  is  also 
a  master  of  literary  style. 

Jack  London  says :  "I  do  not  know  of  any  book  deal- 
ing with  evolution  that  I  have  read  with  such  keen  in- 
terest. Mr.  Moore  has  a  broad  grasp  and  shows  masterly 
knowledge  of  the  subject.  And  withal  the  interest  never 
flags.  The  book  reads  like  a  novel.  One  is  constantly 
keyed  up  and  expectant.  Mr.  Moore  is  to  be  congratulated 
on  the  magnificent  way  in  which  he  has  made  alive  the 
dull,  heavy  processes  of  the  big  books.  And  then,  there  is 
his  style.  He  uses  splendid  virile  English  and  shows  a 
fine  appreciation  of  the  values  of  words.  He  uses  always 
the  right  word." 

Eugene  V.  Debs  says :  "It  is  impossible  for  me  to  ex- 
press my  appreciation  of  your  masterly  work.  It  is  sim- 
ply great,  and  every  Socialist  and  student  of  sociology 
should  read  it.  I  have  carried  it  in  my  grip  over  the  past 
few  thousand  miles  and  its  essence  is  in  my  heart,  and  it 
has  been  a  source  of  genuine  inspiration  to  me." 

Xvv  l  1V 
f        o^ 

§    UNIVERSITY   J 
\  / 


PARTNERS  WANTED 


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ple (1,640  in  February,  1907)  who  have  each  put  in  ten 
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They  get  no  dividends ;  what  they  do  get  is  the  privilege 
of  buying  books  at  half  price.  Moreover,  they  make  pos- 
sible in  this  way  the  publication  of  the  real  books  of  In- 
ternational Socialism  at  prices  within  the  reach  of  laborers. 

• 

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Write  for  particular!. 


CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

(Co-operative) 
264  Kinzie  Street.  Chicago 


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